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EKIM-FOR B-BOY'S ABOUT TO ROCK VOL.1

Sam Spence
Sam Spence Sounds
Finders Keepers Records

Release date: 20th November 2015

Born in San Francisco in 1927 Samuel Lloyd Spence is a peculiar piece in the komplicated krautrock puzzle.

As an American expat working in a community of German rock musicians in the early 70s Spence shared his alien status with the likes of David Johnson and Malcolm Mooney (Can), Carole Muriel (Brainticket), Maria Archer (Embryo), Bill Barone (Wallenstein) and the band Sweet Smoke, but in Spence’s case it wasn’t the free-love and communal living that attracted him to Germanic pastures – Spence’s European travel plan was academic.

Over a decade earlier Spence had travelled from California to Paris to study “serious music” composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique with the great composers Arthur Honegger and Francis Poulenc where he conducted alongside Jean Fournier. After settling in Europe he would later make his way to Austria and later Germany in search of a supportive community of symphony orchestras to help him develop music for film and television. Due to Communism it became difficult for Spence to enter the classical epicentre of Eastern Berlin so he settled for Munich.

Throughout the mid 60s Spence kept his hand in popular music via his US connections. His original roots playing clarinet and sax in Californian swing bands had lead to paid work sending compositions to commercial Hollywood groups which lead to a part time interest in electronic instruments and the development of the synthesiser. To balance his classical composition Spence was able to use his Hollywood credentials to score German TV commissions making dozens of groovy symphonic scores with electronic flourishes and towards the end of the decade, with the help of a long term contract composing motivational music for the National Football League, Spence had raised enough capital to bring one of the very first Moog sythesisers to Germany.

While in Munich Spence met an American disc jockey called Mal Sondock who had recently struck a production deal with a new German pop music label called Kuckuck. Sondock introduced Spence to a 24 year old Eckart Rahn who owned the record company and after an initial agreement to release a single of Spence’s soundtrack to the Francis Durbridge thriller series entitled ‘WIE EIN BLITZ’ (‘Like Lightning’) the pair discussed the idea of recording an LP of electronic music which would appeal to ambient and experimental enthusiasts who were searching for cosmic sounds after the rise of krautrock bands like Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. After the release of two moog-fuelled singles including a cover version of Focus’ 1972 hit single ‘Sylvia’ Rahn agreed to release Spence’s debut LP of synthesiser based pop music which would sit amongst his eclectic Kuckuck roster including the minimal electronic pulses of Deuter, the experimental field recordings of Ernst Schultz and the avant-garde releases of Peter Michael Hamel and Terry Riley.

Signed exclusively to Kuckuck in Germany Rahn recognised the potential in Spence’s synthesiser music amongst production music circles and television advertising companies so he struck up deals throughout Europe with library labels such as Brull and Dewolfe who would distribute Spence’s LPs and sublicense new Sam Spence recordings from Kuckuck for potential commercial usage. This included a whole LP of entirely electronic tracks entitled ‘The Art Of The Sythesiser’ on which he used a Moog 55 to stunning effect creating melodic pastoral pop music, freakish suspense themes and a selection of short bursts of bubbling ‘Moog Shots’ which would soon find their way into crime thrillers and action films (such as Taylor Wong’s Kung Fu fantasy film “Ru Lai Shen Zhang”)

www.finderskeepersrecords.com

Sam Spence - Water World

Billy Green
Stone
FKR031LP-A

Released 19th February 2016

Meet Stone. The trailer says it all. A deep Australian drawl narrates the scene over a psychedelic swamp-funk rhythm section doused in electronic percussion and treated keyboards. “Stone Is A Trip… The grave diggers are on the move – a new breed of motorbike gang” The screen fills with images of slo-mo bike accidents, hallucinogenic trips and a death defying cliff stunt which could easily mistaken for a doppelganger scene in Psychomania. “Vietnam veterans with their own style of life, their own rules, their own religion.” The scene swathes to a satanic ritualistic burial at the hands of a denim-clad crew of outlaw bikers with strangely familiar faces.

To many global record collectors, DJs, music producers and general retrophiles living outside of Australia “Stone” was primarily known for its electronic sound effects, psychedelic guitars, cosmic soundscapes and funky bass lines… In the 80s and 90s, before the global DVD boom, Stone to many people was first and foremost a Soundtrack… The kind of soundtrack that makes you wish you could see the film but it’ll probably never happen. The LP artwork alone was beyond enigmatic with its contradicting embroider logo (designed by sandy) alongside its striking futuristic airbrushed chrome insignia (designed by comic artist Peter Ledger and realised by airbrush whizz Errol Black). The huge parade of brand new Kawasaki bikes inside the gatefold looked like something from the future compared to the classic full-dresser Harleys from the American Hells Angels movies. And when the needle drops into the groove and the freakish blend of didgeridoo and Moog (played by Johnny ‘Didge’ Matthews and synth expert Andy Cohan) blended with unidentified clicks belches and pops fly out the speakers it is literally impossible to put a date, never mind a story line, to this acid fuelled soundscape. The use of confusing and contradicting musical influences alongside bizarre noises is actually the secret sauce in this concoction and when the swampy psychedelic funk-rock rhythm section kicks-in you are left with a 45 minute programme of skewed. Forward-thinking avant-pop that would stylistically fill a very lonely section in the record shop racks. There are not many records quite like Stone.

www.finderskeepersrecords.com

Billy Green - Race

197? Ed. NUOVA IDEA srl

Music by UGO BUSONI


VALVOLE

Ugo Busoni - VALVOLE

Breakbeat Paradise Recordings is very pound to welcome back one of the Ghetto Funk scenes finest producers: B-Side for the second installment of his Party Bangers series. This time he’s teamed up with another heavyweighter – BBP’s very own BadboE to line up 4 big tunes designed for maximum dancefloor destruction!

Party Bangers Vol. 2 takes us on a musical journey through different areas of electronic funk: from the peak time ghetto funk bangers – over Reggae grooves, electro swing to end up with a disco anthem. The musicality plays a big role on these tunes and its easy to recognize both producers signature through-out this EP.        

The EP kicks off with a big electric funk bangers Funk Me Again, which takes elements from a classic funk jam and mixes it with some J5 party rap in a progressive ghetto funk arrangement. Rewind it Back takes on some catchy reggae summer grooves and slams on some big beats and wobble basslines. Do You Wanna Ride flips it around with some electro swing vibes to makes sure the party keeps on riding. Last but not least its time for B-Side & BadboE to Get Busy on an extended disco anthem. 7 mins of groovy disco goodness.

For those of you who trying to steer clear of the mash-ups or wants to do you own mixes, all 4 tunes comes in instrumental versions.

Another banging EP from your one-stop-shop for everything you need in funky beats and breaks…

BBP127A B-Side vs. BadboE - Funk Me Again [Preview]

Get track:
https://ghettofunk.bandcamp.com/album/ghetto-funk-presents-d-end-gfp31
http://ghettofunk.co.uk/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/dend/65757302032

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