The Black Keys - Magic Potion

I've been waiting for this album with great anticipation. I frowned when I heard they would leave Fat Possum records, I still can't see a good reason for that, but it's clear the change of label didn't affect their music that much. Less blues than the Chulahoma in-between-snack, quite towards 70's hardrock. But with patented, trademarked and registered Black Keys sound.
Do what you've got to do: check the slick new website, buy this album, prove the record company right and bring the Keys the success they deserve!
Nonesuch / V2 2006

The Black Keys - Magic Potion

Studio One Scorcher Instrumentals vol. 2

The Soul Jazz views on Jamaican music go down rather well with me and this one's no exception. Related content do you find in the archive of April.
The combination of Studio One and instrumental adds usually up to one name in particular and that's Jackie Mittoo. He's prominently present on this album: under his own name, in collectives, with the Soul Vendors and with the Skatalites. The recordings are dated approximately between 1967 and 1971, if they're dated. Expect reggae and ska of course but the instrumental format leaves a bit more room for musical freedom.
Enough to read in the linernotes about featured artists, sad to see the only pictures are of 7" single labels. Wouldn't be surprised if the sound quality is even better than the original recordings and considering the prominent thanks too the Dodd relatives it also wouldn't surprise me if a volume 3 would see the light of day. Magnificent stuff.
Soul Jazz records 2006

Studio One Scorcher Instrumentals vol. 2

Further Adventures Of The FunkSoul Sisters

Way back in March I had a similar album here, the label's been up here on different occasions too. Usually an interesting selection, fairly cheap package and decent prices (the 3cd sets in particular). Especially if you don't care for such things as linernotes: you'll find 'em verbatim underneath the tracklist.
Union Square Music 2004

Further Adventures Of The FunkSoul Sisters

Wiliam Bell - The Sound Of A Bell

William Bell isn't one of the largest names in soul but for historic reasons we need to know him. As a songwriter and a singer who could make his shortcomings into assets he had a profound influence on a label which had a profound influence on soul music, Stax. Talented for sure and very effective in his cooperation with Booker T. Jones he dispensed great songs and introduced strings into the sound of Stax.
This album released in 1967 is a rarity by definition: Stax + Volt released 2 LPs in '65, 12 in '66 and 14 in '67, since the economic power of the black population was deemed insufficient for something so expensive as a longplayer.
This CD features the original 11 track album, 2 alternate bonustracks, production by Booker T. and backing by the MG's with the Memphis Horns. Remastered sound and brief historic notes with interview snippets (Bell and Jones) in the linernotes.
Stax records 2002

Wiliam Bell - The Sound Of A Bell

Ike Turner / Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88, A Proper Introduction

More stuff by our resident guitarplayer / musical busybody. The Proper label collected the really early years from Turner: 1951 - 1953 where he worked as talentscout and as session musician. The tracklist isn't filled with Kings Of Rhythm or Ike's discoveries, see for yourself on Amazon: tracklist.
A number of songs are likely in your collection already, it's the theme of this CD that gives them new meaning. Overall it can be discribed unsurprisingly as rock 'n' roll and Chicago blues.
I don't really see the need to put the name of Jackie Brenston so prominently on the cover, only the first 3 tracks are by 'Jackie Brenston and the Deltacats' and we all know the story behind that band name.
Proper did an excellent job again with packaging, booklet, pictures and research.
Proper records 2004

Ike Turner / Jackie Brenston - Rocket 88, A Proper Introduction

James Carr - My Soul Is Satisfied, The Rest Of

"In the wake of the unanimous acclaim for our previous James Carr reissues, it was inevitable that Ace would receive requests from his ever growing army of fans for more of the same." Well yes, naturally!
It's not really leftover material but it is collected from every nook and cranny of Carr's carreer: from the 60's 'till now, soul and gospel, released and unissued. But as promised: more of the same.
Starting with Goldwax recordings with some alternate takes of familiar songs, an Atlantic single of the late 70's, 3 tracks on the tiny 'River City' label (original tapes are gone, 1 copy of the music remained on a DAT tape) and then silence. Sound came back on in the 90's, with new repertoire, here included mostly from the latter part of the 90's. For the final 3 tracks we hear James reunited with the Jubilee Hummingbirds gospel band, a band he sang with in the 60's with a.o. O.V. Wright.
This selection could've been fanmaterial only but it definitely isn't! A third of the 23 tracks is Goldwax recording...
James Carr is well covered by Ace on no less than 7 CDs, and then to think there's probably music lost forever. The booklet is Ace quality, of course.
Kent / Ace records 2004

James Carr - My Soul Is Satisfied, The Rest Of
Part 1
Part 2
pass: CaesarTjalbo

the album as zip files, no password:
Part 1
Part 2

Maze featuring Franky Beverly - Greatest Hits

Funkateers. Singer, producer, songwriter and general axis of the band Franky Beverly got Maze together in 1977 and they're still going strong afaik. Music's from 1978 to 1993 so expect something different from James Brown and the likes. It's more laidback, the booklet refers to it as 'R&B' but that may be because this release is from 2004. You can read more about Franky and Maze, it also contains some pictures but in that respect you get what you pay for: it sells as 'nice price' in most shops.
Capitol / Warner Bros. records 2004

Maze featuring Franky Beverly - Greatest Hits
Part 1
Part 2

Madeline Bell - Bell's A Poppin'

Madeline Bell started in a very traditional way by singing gospels in church. Moving on to a gospel show on the road, which even lead to Europe, where that kind of music was new in 1962. The vocal talent of Madeline Bell had always been recognized but over in the UK it landed her a record deal. A move from Emi to Philips didn't lead to much more commercial success but did get her in touch with other great voices on that label: Dusty Springfield, Doris Troy and Kiki Dee for example. You're encouraged to listen closely to the backing vocals on recordings of these women...
This CD contains the first LP + some A's & B's from singles ('65- '67), nothing particularly 'original' but all the more opportunity to study the voice of Madeline Bell. Music, production and soundquality are very good. If convinced go check her out, she still performs: website.
The 20 tracks come with foldout linernotes, containing much information and pictures.
RPM records 2004

Madeline Bell - Bell's A Poppin'

Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm - Ike's Instrumentals

The title sums it up pretty nicely, I guess, and I don't have anything more to say about Ike. It's a release by Ace so the linernotes are relevant, some interview snippets with Ike are pretty interesting. The music's from 1954 - 1965, original labels were Modern, Stevens and Sue.
It's a grand showcase of Ike's 'whammy bar' guitar moves, all the more remarkable that he still found time to cut instrumentals with Tina around. Great rock 'n' roll stuff, worthy addition to the Ike Turner material already on this blog.
Ace records 2000

Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm - Ike's Instrumentals

Gruppo Sportivo - Pop! Goes The Brain / Design Moderne

I'm a fan of Gruppo Sportivo. This post is to announce that the re-issue 2 LP on 1 CD albums are available again, they weren't due to financial problems of the distributor. This is another one and there's '10 Mistakes/Buddy Odor Is A Gas!'.
Gruppo still exists but leader Hans Vandenburg has more projects than self appointed nicknames. He performs a lot, check the (pretty dormant) fan forum where you can even interact with Hans.
Pop! is an album from 1981, Design's from 1982 and was their last, sixth, LP at the time, each album contributes 12 tracks to this CD. Pop! is exceptional because it doesn't feature the Gruppettes female backing vocals and Design Moderne is worth mentioning because the band knew their contract wasn't going to be extended; they gave it all one more time.
Relevancy of GS today can been seen in a video by Puffy Ami Yumi, 'written by' Dexter Holland of the Offspring. Judge yourself: compare this video to 'Tokyo' from the 'Back to 78/Copy Copy' set.
Pseudonym records 2000

Gruppo Sportivo - Pop! Goes The Brain / Design Moderne
Part 1
Part 2

James Brown - Live At The Apollo 2 (deluxe edition)

There's more JB on this blog, check the archive of March, this item is number 2 to the first 1962 Live @ The Apollo. "I need to play at the Apollo, it keeps me on my toes" according to the loudest screaming man in showbiz. The recordings were made on June 24 & 25 1967 and mark some development in his music indeed compared to the 1962 set.
"Deluxe Edition" is also no stranger on this blog: they're the 2CD packages that come with a stylish but impractical see-through sleeve and separate tracklist. Otherwise great things to have, this one too: 26 page booklet loaded with beautiful pictures and information.
To do justice to the 'live' aspect I've tried to rip this with 'no gap' between the different tracks (without ripping it as 2 big files). It didn't work completely but the result was definitely better than with normal settings.
Universal records 2001

James Brown - Live At The Apollo 2
Part 1
Part 2

O.V. Wright - The Soul Of

Some great deep soul from the late 60's and early 70's. Overton Vertis Wright (1939 - 80) has a voice you'll love and the music's amazing, whether it's soul or gospel. The 18 tracks on this CD are taken from various albums and a few unreleased tracks were added. I can't say if this is something like a 'Best Of' but it seems a great overview of a part of his career; he worked as an artist in the late 50's already.
O.V. Wright recorded these albums for Back Beat records, which I hadn't heard of but seems interesting.
It's an old AAD cd with a selection probably released before on LP. The linernotes contain year and source album, 2 pictures and a short bio.
Duke Peacock / MCA 1992

O.V. Wright - The Soul Of

Testing

Configuring my new OS and setting the preferences took some time, especially since I enjoy to mess with it which resulted in numerous re-installs. I'm not done yet but I have some results. First something else:
- the archive format is Zip, no password. I wouldn't want people on a different OS have to download .tar.bz2 files. Zip should be available on Windows, Mac and Linux (and others) without having to use a different extraction program than you're using already. Problems in the comments.
- fileformat is mp3 (nothing new) which is alien to the world of Linux due to licensing issues. The encoder I used is Lame 3.96.1 (very likely the same as I used before), the ripper is CDParanoia and the frontend is Grip. Ripper and frontend may change in the near future but that shouldn't be your concern as long as the sound is OK. A difficulty for me is that setting the preferences isn't really easy so there are small differences in filenames compared to before. I may tinker with that someday or use a different frontend, just use a tagging-tool to set it to your standards.
I've downloaded and tested the MP3's on my system and a Windows XP machine with WinAmp and it worked (I've no access to a Mac). If you're having trouble, leave a comment.
- I'm very tempted to use the Ogg Vorbis encoder because I like the quality and the license. Codecs are available on Win, Lin and Mac for most programs. The only reason not to use it is it's very poor availability on portable players, like iPod, Creative, SanDisk and Archos. My iRiver handles it and so do Samsung players and I can wholeheartedly recommend iRiver to anyone for plenty of reasons. It beats me why manufacturers don't include the Vorbis codecs (they're free to use), if only to beef up their specs, but I suspect the industry is more involved with DRM than it's with customers.
This should be a concern to Windows people since MicroSoft already installs monitoring tools with their updates and I fear it's only worse with Vista. Google on "trusted computing" and educate yourself. Mac users should expect Apple to follow suit because Apple has too much to lose with their iTunes technology. I don't intend to advocate open source software, create panic or start a debate here but I do like to see you inform yourself on these developments and where it affects you and your computer.
- Back to the music: please test the O.V. Wright mp3's. If you encounter problems drop a note in the comments. I also like to hear your opinion on using Ogg Vorbis instead of MP3 via the comments. This blog isn't a good place to discuss DRM, Trusted Computing/Palladium/NGSCB/etc, OSS, pro's and cons of operating systems. For that you'll find plenty of discussion forums out there.
- have fun!

Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself The Best Of

Los Angeles proto-funkateers. The hit record 'Express Yourself' is obviously important here but Charles Wright is also interesting because of the influence he had on music in general without having big commercial success.
It's a great fun CD with a nice relaxed funk band playing good music. I was also pleasantly surprised with the linernotes being informative, readable and having some good pictures. Charles Wright himself helped with the compilation and has found his way to the internet too where he expresses himself. Charles Wright about this CD: "If you must party do it right - this is the party album".
The music is from the late 60's 'till 1972, 16 tracks.
Warner Bros. records 1993

Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself The Best Of
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

Joe Tex - From The Roots... ...Came The Rapper

"The point about this particular compilation is that it offers for reappraisal Joe Tex recordings that [..] have been ignored by all previous reissues" (linernotes).
Joe Tex stuff from 1970 to 1975, the majority being '71 and '72. Joe Tex is fantastic and the songs on this set only prove that further. What I understand is that it's mostly taken from an album called "Rapper", it's the musical period between 'I Gotcha' and 'Ain't Gonna Bump No More (With No Big Fat Woman)' (both NOT on this CD).
The music is very diverse with Joe handling everything between smooth and explosive. Many individual songs on this CD I rate as the finest soul I've ever heard and I can't get enough of 'Under Your Powerful Love'.
Kent / Ace 2002, 20 tracks

Joe Tex - From The Roots... ...Came The Rapper (100 + 10 MB)
Part 1
Part 2
(pass: CaesarTjalbo)

A quick update

My adventures in the world of Linux do not go particularly well. The wireless problem was circumvented by compromising the integrity of my house: I think the only thing that keeps the walls and floor together now is the ethernet cable.
Another issue is a not working soundcard and I think you can see how that affects this blog. Not only do I NEED music but it's also nice if I can check music before I upload.
Anyway, I've upped some stuff a while ago. I intended to replace some of it to make use of the larger upload size of RS but haven't got round to that. They're only 4 albums and they're sometimes in chunks of max 100 MB but I'm quite sure you'll like the selection.