It looks like I’m on the retro trip right now with re-discovering some of my old records. I hope you’ve enjoyed the first part of Limbo’s Paradise and are ready for part II.

1. Stephanie Mills - Something In The Way (You Make Me Feel) (12″ MCA)

Like Camelle Hinds’ Sausalito Calling mentioned in Part I of Limbo’s Paradise this is a song that has written timeless summer groove all over. Produced, written and arranged by Angela Winbush and splendidly remixed and extendeded by the late Louil Silas Jr. to epic 9:20 minutes this is still a dream come true for every soulboy and soulgirl. You know you’re addicted to this tune when you hear the bass and fingersnipping at the very beginning. Something In The Way was the first single from Stephanie’s Home album that also featured another great Winbush song So Good, So Right plus a divine version of Home from the Wizard Of Oz with Take 6 on background vocals and Nick Martinelli as producer. Stephanie did a cover of Something In The Way on her recent lacklustre Born For This! album but compared to this version it is a mediocre copy and Miss Mills didn’t do herself a favour with the new version.

2. Paul Johnson - If We Lose Our Way (12″ Force Vital)

One of the unsung heroes of Brit Soul, Paul Johnson suffers from the same under-exposure like for example Noel McKoy. The closet thing to a hit Paul had sp far was as featured vocalist for Soul II Soul on Represent. For If We Lose Our Way Paul teamed up with Dodge and I.G. Culture and it’s the Long Rhodes Mix that’s still the best version eleven years after its release. Wait a minute, eleven years? Why I’m feeling so old all of a sudden when I pick some records I haven’t heard for a while?

3. Veronica Lynn - Make Up Your Mind / Best Times Of Our Lives (12″ RCA)

It was and still is the song Best Times Of Our Lives on the flipside that makes this 12″ worthwhile. Imagine Chante Moore with Love’s Taken Over combined with an early Erykah Badu and you get the impression how good this track is. Best Times Of Our Lives is an Album Version and the sleeve mentiones a forthcoming album Diamond In The Rough. Unfortunatley I’ve never seen nor heard it. Looks like RCA had cancelled the release because the single wasn’t a success.

4. Zakar - Censee (12″ Select Records)

Straight out of Obscursville this release…I guess most have never heard of Zakar. Well, you’ve missed something. Censee in the Fanatic’s Hydromix is a very good rip-off of Nancy Wilson’s Sunshine and Teddy Pendergrass’ Love T.K.O. and Zakar’s voice is smooth and fits to the groove. The other versions are rather meaningless for me with their hip-hop beats and included raps.

5. André Cymone - Dance Electric (12″ CBS)

And they always tell you that they haven’t cloned any humans now. Well, André Cymone does not only look like Prince on the cover of Dance Electric, he even sounds like him. Ok, this song was co-produced by Prince but still they could’ve been twins. Dance Electric sounds like most of Prince produced songs of the mid-80s. Driving electrofunk with some nice guitarlicks. After all this song has aged quite well.

6. E.U. - Da Butt (12″ EMI/Manhattan)

Ah Go-Go, the party music out of Washington DC…I think Da Butt was the greates Go-Go hit record ever. For some obscure reason this earthy funky music has never been a great success outside the DC area. Da Butt is still a great funky party tune with enough oh hey oh’s and and yeah yeah yeah’s to chant along.
I remember that I saw the Spike Lee movie School Daze, in which this song was featured in the late 80s when I studied in (Western) Berlin, as original version. Usually non-German movies get dubbed here in Germany, a fact that makes it quite unpleasant to watch a movie because I always used to sit there and wonder where I know the voice of a speaker from. Well, I thought I could understand English back then…but after seeing School Daze I had my doubts. Maybe it was because this movie played at a college and the actors spoke very different from the Britsh English I was more familiar with back then…but after all the included performances by E.U. and Phyllis Hyman still made it worthwhile watching this movie.

7. Master C And J ft. Liz Torres - Master Of Love (Satisfaction Guaranteed) (12″ Street Side Records)

An early house record that doesn’t sound so bad these days if you’re into early house stuff. Somehow similiar to Master C & J’s In The City that featured Liz Torres as well. For the real underground house feeling listen to the Jesse Street Mix on the B-side.
Maybe the misspelling on the record is the reason why there’s no entry for this 12″ on discogs or could it be that rare?

8. Mica Paris - Contribution (David Morales Remixes) (12″ Island)

Sad to say but after fifteen years this sounds horrible dated. David Morales did his usual stuff on a tune of the album of the same name, that finally gave us a little more creative input from Mica. Somehow this US release has lost somthing I found attractive in 1990. There also was a Yvonne Turner remix of Contribution, which today sounds notches above these Morales mixes for me.

9. Groove Collective - Lift Off (12″ Giant Step/GRP)

In its original version Lift Off is a modern soul gem with vibes, trumpet, flugelhorn, flute and heavenly vocals by Vinia Mojica, something like the best Brand New Heavies track (while they were good with N’Dea Davenport as lead vocalist) the Heavies had never recorded. Salaam Remi did the best with his remix and sticked closely to the original although he couldn’t made it better.

 

10. Divine Circle ft Annette Taylor - Show Me (12″ After Dark Records / Freeze Dance)

I’m still a sucker for any deep house record with a singer that can really sing. Just take this After Dark Records release produced by Mitch Moses with the overlooked Annette Taylor on vocal duty. The Deep House Mix has everything I always loved about this genre, i.e. a great acappella intro and that warm soulful feeling and Annette’s vocals as icing on the cake. There was also a Freeze Dance release with additional mixes by Matthias Heilbronn and Todd Terry which may be more suitable for the dancefloor but somehow pale compared to the Deep House Mix.

From now on you’ll find a list of ten records every now and then, that results from just picking up a few records out of my collection (ok, you won’t see the embarrassments I’ve bought sometimes…that would be too painful to admit). So here we go for the first edition of Limbo’s Paradise!

1. Circle Of Life - Hold Me Closer (12″ White)

I know nothing about this release except what’s printed on the label and that TML 0010 is engraved on the record. Hold Me Closer is one of these solid, midtempo tunes in that Soul II Soul vein that were so ubiquitous in the early 90s. Sung by an unknown female this still sounds good to my ears in 2005. I guess I would buy it again.

2. Children Of Judah - To The Bone (Let’s Get Stoned) (12″ 13th Tribe)

Produced by Barrie K. Sharpe (of Diana Brown and Barrie K. Sharpe fame…you certainly remember The Masterplan) and sung by Donna Gardier this song still grooves like hell and sounds fresh like it did in 1993. Children Of Judah also released an album, that featured all the 12″es by CoJ, Funeka And The 1st Witness, The 1st Witness and the Assassins.

3. Cherisse Arrington - Down With This (12″ MCA)

The good thing about records you haven’t listened to for a long while is that you have usually completely forgotten which version you liked. I know I like Down With This by Cherisse Arrington but starting with the Album Version, I find myself in utter disbelieve because this sounds really dated. But wait, there’s also the Vibe Mix, which is much, much better with warm key patterns and much more soul than the urban/hip hop influenced other versions. I guess years later some house remixes of Down With This also surfaced and I must have them somewhere.

4. Pinky - Looking For A Love (12″ Big One Records)

Now this is still a great tune in the Soul Version. I remember that I studied in Berlin/Germany back in 1991 and it was impossible to get this record there in any record store so I had to order it in a record store in Hamburg where I used to order records before I moved to Berlin. And it was and is worth all the efforts to get it. Like the Circle Of Life release Looking For A Love is a good example of the sound of Urban Brit Soul from the early 90s. Unfortunately I have never ever heard from Pinky again.

5. Hugh Masekela - Don’t Go Lose It Baby (12″ Jive)

Horrible cover of this German release, with the printed US flag saying “Top Ten US Dance Charts” you could’ve expected the worst. Of course this wasn’t the worst quite on the contrary. A fine dance version of Don’t Go Lose It Baby which still sounds good over 21 years after its release.

6. Black Radical - Sumarli (12″ Mango/Island)

In the late 80s and early 90s I bought some rap/hip hop records and Sumarli isn’t my sole Black Radical release. At least he was a rapper with a mission and meaningful lyrics. Sumarli is no exception and it features Courtney Pine, so I had two reasons to buy this 12″ in 1991. Although I began to dislike rapping in the 90s when it became fashionable to include a rap on every soul single, I still like this tune.

7. Camelle Hinds - Sausalito Calling (12″ Black On Black)

Ah, this is such a damn great summer tune from 1994/5. I would still buy it if it was released today. Sausalito Calling hasn’t lost any of its magic and class. Warm, organic orchestration and a fine vocal performance by Camelle Hinds. This tune was also included years later on Camelle’s Vibe Alive album on Expansion Records. If you missed the 12″ try to get the album just for this song alone it’s worth the price.

8. Mass Order - Tribulations (12″ Grove Street)

This was released years before Mass Order had a hit with Lift Every Voice (Take Me Away) and it sounds a little bit dated these days although personally I still like the sound of house records from the mid/late 80s. What’s totally outdated though, is the Hip House remix on the flipside.

9. Ceybil - Love So Special (12″ Atlantic)

Released in 1990 this has aged much better than the Mass Order release mentioned above. Ceybil was a moniker for Sybil Jefferies who later called herself Cybil (Jefferies) to avoid confusion with another house singer named Sybil. Produced and co-written by Renato Pearson I still prefer the B-Side and the Extended Original Underground Mix to the Tony Humphries mix on the A-Side. Love So Special can really be called a classic record in the house genre.

10. Melba Moore - Do You Really Want My Love (12″ Capitol Records)

Again this has incorporated the omnipresent Soul II Soul influences of the early 90s in the Wanna Dance Mix. Back in 1990 I really liked what Goh Hotoda did with this song. It still sounds nice although not so special like it did back then.

No, I’m not starting this review telling you how I really tried to be unbiased and how I tried to really like this record, a statement that always is followed by a roasting. But, alas, I’ve assumed it already here that this may not be a great nor a good album. In fact, this is on the whole a disaster. The only remixer here that’s doing Curtis and the message of his songs justice is Ashley Beedle with his version of Do Do Wap Is Strong In Here (which originally appeared on the Soundtrack album to Short Eyes) and with a few deductions Little Louie Vega with his version of Superfly, although Curtis’ voice sounds a little pitched on this remix.
The world can really do without a four on the floor house mix of Move On Up. And Eric Kupper gets some fat bad points for this trash. Even worse is Grandmaster Flash’s hip hop version of We’re A Winner including a meaningless talking on the intro. Neither King Britt nor one of my favourite remixers/house producers Blaze deliver an inspiring version and they both lose some credibility for me with the rather hideous results. The horror continues with Maurice Joshua’s version of If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go and horrible versions of We Got To Have Peace and People Get Ready that just sounds like Eddie Baez and Stonebridge thought “let’s just lay a house beat under Curtis vocals…why bother with the melody or the music’s message”. Mixmastermike doesn’t save anything, in fact his scratched electro version of Pusherman is the crappiest piece of a remix I have heard in a long time.
So what the hell was Rhino Records intention behind this? And why on earth did any of the remixers involved participated at all? Is it really all because of the money? There are a few things you just don’t do even if you have some money to waste. Or is it that major record labels (Rhino is part of the Warner Bros. empire) finally have run out of ideas or the need to discover new artists?
I wouldn’t be so annoyed about this project if Rhino had just released a simple 12″ with the two remixes of Ashley Beedle and Little Louie Vega, that would’ve been fine and there wouldn’t be a problem. But this is just lousy. If there’s A Hell Below, I’ve already been there while listening to this album. Better save your money and buy the original Curtis Mayfield albums!

Tracklisting of Mayfield : Remixed - The Curtis Mayfield Collection: 1. Superfly (Little Louie Vega EOL Mix)/ 2. Do Do Wap Is Strong In Here (Ashley Beedle Re-Edit)/ 3. Move On Up (Eric Kupper Vocal Mix)/ 4. We’re A Winner (Grandmaster Flash Remix)/ 5. Little Child Runnin’ Wild (King Britt Scuba Mix)/ 6. Freddie’s Dead (Blaze Roots DJ Mix)/ 7. If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Going to Go (Maurice Joshua Nu Soul Mix)/ 8. We Got to Have Peace (Eddie Baez Laid Back Mix)/ 9. People Get Ready (Stonebridge Club Remix)/ 10. Pusherman (MixMasterMike Pusher’s Nephew Mix) | released 2005 by Rhino Records

For more infos visit rhino.com.

[If you want to discuss Curtis Mayfield’s music and these remixes, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

If you love Bah Samba’s debut album or their new 4 set as much as I do, you certainly want to know more about the band. Here’s your chance with this interview with Bah Samba’s founding member Julian Bendall.

Q: It’s been ten years since Bah Samba had released their debut single Carnival on Loaded. Congratulations for the decennial. How content are you with what you have achieved as Bah Samba in these ten years?

Julian Bendall: Thanks, I think Bah Samba has achieved a great deal in the last ten years, since we only recorded two albums! The success of ‘Reach Inside’ has been incredible it’s kept the whole project going, speradic though it may be. ‘Reach Inside’ was an experiment really, I wouldn’t say we were pioneers, but many people see Bah Samba in that way, I just wanted to incorporate as many live elements into one house 12″ as possible, I didn’t really have a song, just loads of original parts and vocal takes, we filled three Akai samplers in the end, and sequenced it all in an old Atari computer. ‘Reach Inside’ is endorsed by the worlds top DJ’s and producers now and features on practically every latin house compilation that exists, I think Dimitri’s ‘A Night at Playboy Mansion’ brought it to the mainstream, possibly everyone has a copy of that CD, it’s even on Hollywood films. I am content, I’m also happy that we never ’sold out’, artistically speaking that is, and to be honest I wouldn’t know how to.

Q: Why have you released only two “real” albums with new material in these ten years?

Julian Bendall: Bah Samba started out as an underground project, more of a hobby, a learning curve and some fun, don’t get me wrong though…I was always trying to make a living through music but in those days it was more about getting gigs and playing out live as much as possible with various bands.
I suppose some people may see Bah Samba as un-productive due to the huge gaps between releases, but not the case, we were all doing different projects everyday doing session work and writing, besides I personally wanted to keep it special and not let it fall into monotony, I’ve seen a few bands/friends go in this direction and it’s quite depressing, at least we kept it fresh and still do. The other reason for these gaps was the time it took the label to release material.
In 1999 myself and Alice went travelling, not together though, she went to Africa and I went to Brasil, I initially went to do some shows in Sao Paulo only for two weeks, however I found myself staying for four months, on return in 2000 we met up and decided we should record a new song taking on board our new influences, it was actually ‘Drifting’, this version was never released by the label. I later put in an ultimatum to Estereo to come up with some budget for an album and they said yes!

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I haven’t heard the remixes on Mayfield : Remixed yet, but I wonder if we really need a remix of classic soul songs like Superfly, (Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go [btw, Rhino, why on earth did you change gonna go to going to go although Curtis Mayfield wrote and sang gonna go?], Move On Up or People Get Ready? There’s nothing wrong with another artist doing a cover version, but remixing the originals? Are major labels really so desperate and have run out of ideas? There’s so much talent out there where investing money would have made much more sense.
So, dear record label CEO, who’s next? Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, Bessie Smith? They all have done great records and most of their songs are totally unknown to the mass market, especially to today’s youth. And you don’t have to ask the artist if he or she likes the idea at all…oh, I forgot, you don’t ask the artists anyway.

The folks at Defected are certainly not superstitious, otherwise they would have just skipped the thirteenth release of their “Defected In The House” and continued with number fourteen.
This time Danny Krivit gets a chance to choose and mix the songs. And as you can see from the tracklisting below he has chosen an eclectic mix of new and classic tunes with the first disc being more on the uptempo side of vocal house/garage. The second disc is musically more diverse with songs covering afro, jazz, electro, house and soul, which makes it my favourite, although Diamond Temple’s Fly and Hi-Tech Jazz by Galaxy 2 Galaxy makes it hard not to like disc one too.
You know that a compilation is good when you hear a tune on it that you like at first listening only to discover that you must have missed this one at its time of release. Such a song is Da Lata’s Ronco Da Lucia, starting with a brazilian jazz intro and then turning in an afro influenced song. Thanks to Danny for including it here.
Portuguese Love has already been praised in my review of Bah Samba 4. Watching You Watching Me by Siji is another winner as is the last song, Natalie Cole’s Tell Me All About It which is remixed in a smooth lounge style.
Kudos to Defected that they don’t lower the quality of their successful In The House compilations with the thirteenth release.

Tracklisting of Danny Krivit In The House: Disc 1: 1.”Stay This Way” - Brand New Heavies (Danny Krivit Edit)/ 2.”Fly” - 280 West Feat. Diamond Temple/ 3.”Love Will” - Stephanie Cooke/ 4.”Breath Away” - Osunlade/ 5.”Slipstream” - Spiritual South/ 6.”Flight” - Studio Apartment Feat. Monique Bingham/ 7.”Gloria’s Groove” - David Morales/ 8.”Koloke” - Joe Claussell/ 9.”Peace” - Yukihiro Fukutomi/ 10.”Deep Down” - Gary Michael Wade/ 11.”Hi-Tech Jazz” - Galaxy 2 Galaxy/ 12.”Uam Uam” - Povo/ 13.”It’s Your Life” - Soul Creation Feat. Tyrah (Danny Krivit Edit)/ 14.”That’s How Much I Love You” - Ambrosia (Ruff Mix)
Disc 2: 1.”Ronco Da Lucia” - Da Lata/ 2.”Killer” - Adamski Feat. Seal/ 3.”Watching You Watching Me” - Siji (Tommy Bones Re-Edit)/ 4.”Awade” - Instant House/ 5.”I’m Your Superman” - Jan Leslie Homes/ 6.”You Give Good Love” - Diana King/ 7.”How Deep Is Your Love” - Blaze (Danny Krivit Edit)/ 8.”Come Into My Life” - Janet Rushmore/ 9.”Special” - Sara Devine/ 10. “Portuguese Love” - Bah Samba/ 11.”Someting With Jazz” – Mr. V/ 12.”Runnin” - John Cutler feat. Pete Simpson/ 13.”Inspired” - Satoshi Tomii/ 14. “Tell Me All About It” - Natalie Cole | released 2005 by Defected Records

For more infos visit defected.com.

[If you want to discuss this CD, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

This is not only a debut album but also a debut on jazz-not-jazz, a review of an album that was produced and recorded in my homeland Germany.
Phil Kullmann is the mastermind behind Raw Artistic Soul. He wrote, co-wrote, recorded, arranged and mixed What About Love plus he plays keys, drums, percussion. Pretty impressive! But Raw Artistic Soul isn’t another one man show where one tries to do everything and misses the spot. Phil has teamed up with a spectacular line-up of 14 musicians and singers to give the idea of a musical collective a renaissance. And no, I won’t mention all the names here even though space isn’t really an issue in an online review :-)
If you know the first 12″ single of Raw Artistic Soul, The One Cultural Groove EP from autumn 2004, that included Nawella and Pa El Bembé, you have a small impression of the collective’s sound. A fine blend of house rhythms with Latin, afro and Spanish elements.
The first songs like What About Love or Cocobutter are a little too pop-happy-go-lucky-house for my personal taste. So I better skip them.
Things get much better with Flores Para Ti though. This is a classic Latin/Spanish house track with great guitar work and scatting by Rafael Cortes. MAW and George Benson would be proud of this song.
It gets even better with the stomping afro inspired groove of Felipes Dubstyle with its brass section. Fela Brasil is another highlight, a cool summer groove with lots of percussion and a flute by Domingo Patricio.
Ra Soul Vibes features Christoph Eidens on vibes who gives this song a Roy Ayers feeling. Together with trumpet and trombone this is a stunning little ditty.
There also a great Afro-Cuban song (Esto Si Lleva) with call and response by Edisney Portales Vega and Michel Martinez. This song wouldn’t be out of place on any Snowboy album.
Add to this the afore-mentioned hypnotic groove of Nawella and the percussion-driven Pa El Bembé plus the introspective Buddhism and you have a diverse album full of warm and highly danceable sounds. Who needs summer when you can have your own piece of summer with Raw Artistic Soul’s journey into sound when it’s released on May 9th 2005?

Tracklisting of What About Love: 1 : Mr Walker/ 2 : What About Love (feat. Mirta Junco Wambrug)/ 3 : Cocobutter (feat. Blain Paulos)/ 4 : Corazon (feat. Mirta Junco Wambrug)/ 5 : Bathanga Vibes (feat. Migrant Souls)/ 6 : Flores Para Ti (feat. Rafael Cortes)/ 7 : Felipes Dubstyle/ 8 : Fela Brasil (feat. Domingo Patricio)/ 9 : Nawella/ 10 : Ra Soul Vibes (feat. Christoph Eidens)/ 11 : Kana (feat. Laygwan Sharkie)/ 12 : Esto Si Lleva (feat. Edisney Portales Vega)/ 13 : Pa El Bembé (feat. Edisney Portales Vega)/ 14 : Buddhism (feat. Mirta Junco Wambrug) | released 2005 by GoGO Music

For more infos visit gogo-music.net and rawartistic.org.

[If you want to discuss Raw Artistic Soul’s music, you can leave your comment below and also use the forum]

Joey Negro In The House is available these days from Defected Records. With three CDs this is somewhere inbetween value for money and music overkill. There are two mixed CDs offering 33 songs between disco, deep house/garage and funk with Notenshun Feat. Sandy Mill, The Two Tons, Blaze Presents Underground Dance Artists For Life feat. Barbara Tucker, Sydenham & Ferrer, Kings Of Tomorrow, Imagination, Fred West & The J.B.’s, or Martin Solveig to name but a few. The third CD includes bonus material (like a discography, biography, interview) and some special re-edits by Joey Negro. If you ever wanted to have a Joey Negro version of Roxy Music’s Angel Eyes, you’ll need this record. Other re-edits include the Kings Of Tomorrow’s Finally, Don Carlos’ Alone and The O’Jays’ Put Your Hands Together. By the way, the original version of the O’Jays song appears on their Ship Ahoi album that is a must-have for any soulboy with its dramatic title song and the famous For The Love Of Money.
So all in all Joey Negro did a good job with the songs he selected and mixed…as if we had expected something else :-)

Why not let Joey Negro explain his motivation behind this compilation?

Here’s an interview Toni Tambourine (Defected Records) did with him.

Q: How did your career start?

Joey Negro: I’ve been DJ’ing since the late 80’s but what really started me off was making music. I’d always been a big music fan. I managed to get a job in a record shop in London in 1986. I moved from Clacton on Sea in Essex down to London and got a job in just around the time house music was really kicking in. It was the time when tracks like Jack Your Body and Fingers Inc had come in but hip-hop and rare groove was really strong too. It was a really exiting time to be in London and I met a lot of people like Jonathan Moore (Coldcut) and Trevor Nelson, who was working on one of the vans that sold us records, it really seemed like there was a new school of people coming through. I stayed in the record shop for about 9 months before getting a job with a record distributor (Rough Trade), which taught me a lot about the business. I then started my own label called Republic, we put out a lot of early New York garage - things like Blaze and The Turntable Orchestra. At the same time I started making my own music, something I’d always wanted to do. My first release was a track I’d done with a friend called MDM - Get Busy on Republic. I started Z records in 1992 which was set-up to release my own records or stuff that I really liked. Out of our 75 releases, I’d say around 65 are me or tracks that I’ve remixed. Things like Must Be the Music, Can’t Get High Without You, Saturday.
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