I Wish You Would

I recently dropped this track on a little set we did on Sergio Fedasz's KALX show. It's such a solid tune. I kind of want to make an edit, but then part of me says "why edit something that already sounds good?", and I reply "because I want to!"

Most notable for her tune "Somebody Else's Guy" and "Love's Gonna Get You", Jocelyn Brown can make your ears bleed (in a good way). At certain times her vocal chords rock harder than a diamond encrusted AC/DC record. I only wish she had made a few more tracks with talented producer's Fred McFarlane and Allen George. Now, try not to cry when the slap bass pops straight out of your download window and slaps you in face...

Jocelyn Brown - I wish you Would (side A)

Horne & Nelson

Today we give you a Phyllis Nelson track and some Jimmy Bo Horne stuff. Horne enjoyed some success in the Disco days most notably with his track "Spank", being featured in some modern movies and TV shows alike. His work has also been sampled readily durring the late 80's and 90's by Da Lench Mob, Jungle Brothers, and the Stereo MC's song "Connected" which was featured on the Hackers sound track. Hackers... what a great film; Cyberpunks, skateboards, the "Internet", and Angelina Jolie. Somehow it ended up representing my generation. OK, I guess I got distracted

Lesson for the day, Jimmy Bo Horne leads to Hackers.

Phyllis Nelson - Stop Don't Do This To Me
Jimmy Bo Horne - Dance Across The Floor
Jimmy Bo Horne - It's Your Sweet Love

Laser Laser

Found this puppy the other day on Moby Dick Records, a label that I've found to mostly put out kind of commercial subpar string disco and 80's dance without any real character. But there are always exceptions, and Laser is one of those (along with Partners, also on Moby Dick), where a label finds some decent talent to exhibit.

It seems Laser came out with an album that was only released in Germany and never in the US, but this self titled single was fortunately brought over. Both tracks are a little more fast paced than I look for, but the healthy smattering, bordering on overdose, of filter sweeping analog synth sounds and a distinct pre-MIDI drift make for some attractive danceable doodads.

Laser - Laser
Laser - His Name Is Charlie

So I know other blogs have posted the Bumblebee Unlimited tracks before, but I just picked up the unofficial UK vinyl release and thought why not digitize it before the record gets worn out and dusty. First heard this track in the background of some VH1 show I think years and years ago. Couldn't tell you what show though. Then a friend of mine in Brooklyn brought it up at a gathering and asked if I had it.... well now I do, Quay!

Bumblebee Unlimited - Lady Bug

Bumblebee Unlimited - Love Bug

Drum Machine Soul

It's been a little nutty around here lately... sickness, surprise Swedish girls, and going out to Paradise Lovers Disco has kept us busy so we had to take a break form posting for a couple of days. But we're back now, strait form the top, with Act 1 and a little more obscure though not outrageously hard to find track from Lady Margaret & The Stovall Sisters.

"If It Is Let It Be" and "Party Hardy People" are a couple tracks more along the soul/funk line. the reason I picked them is they both have great sounding early analog drum machine tracks. And though they have this definite synthesized backing beat they incorporate live hand claps, piano, and guitar to keep that really soulful human element that we strive to look for here on Tough Track. It also helps that these were taken from 7"s as they have a unique sound unto their own.

Also, To make up for not posting enough the last 2 days We've included a little Tres Lingerie edit we did of and RFC medley called "Startrax". Downloads away!!!...

If It Is Let It Be - Lady Margaret & The Stovall Sisters
Party Hardy People - Act 1
Startrax - (Tres Lingerie Edit)

Quick Slick

I only recently found out about Syreeta Muhammad. Don't know much about her except that Syreeta was the former wife of Stevie Wonder and she recorded some music with Billy Preston. I picked up here track Quick Slick on 7". I guess it's not a very rare record to find out here in CA, but I never came across it in NYC. Then again I haven't been looking for disco-funk-boogie stuff for very long...

Quick SLick has a great bass line. It's a synth bass, analog, but it sounds like the producer, Hal Davis, decided to have the synth player stack about 4 pulse-wave and 2 sawtooth oscillators on top of each other to produce this slightly phased dynamic I can almost imagine my Prophet 600 making in "unison track" mode. Anyway, it's a sweet playful track that Syreeta sings great on. See what you think.

Syreeta - Quick Slick

Creme D'Cocoa

Creme D'Cocoa is a group of cool cats from...I don't know where actually, but they funk pretty hard. Most people probably know their track Doin' The Dog form the album Nasty Street. Doin' The Dog actually showed up on the Grand Theft Auto soundtrack for the in-game K109 radio station. ROCKSTAR has always had pretty good taste when it comes to their in-game music selection in GTA. Maybe I'll have to do a post about them later on.

But I have chosen to highlight a different track from the album Nasty Street, titled Doggin' It. So without further interruption here's Creme D'Cocoa Doggin' It in the Nasty Street for your aural pleasure.

Creme D'Cocoa - Doggin' It

QWEST

I thought we would start our posting with a little ditty from Lonnie Reaves that I picked up recently on Qwest Records. Qwest was started in the early 80's by the holy ghost himself, Quincy Jones, and put out some quite well known acts like New Order, Jay-Z, and Frank Sinatra to name the top 3.

I didn't just pick it because it was produced the year I was born and shares a word form our blog title, but that didn't hurt it's chances either. Too Tough is a solid boogie funk tune sure to satisfy those with the appetite for a more 80's drum machine sound. Add a little variable 8th and 16th note primitive digital delay and you've got yourself a great dance-floor groove.

Lonnie Reaves - Too Tough