Groove On 7
Bella’s radio for the lockdown, brought to you by Stewart Bremner … (listen to the full series here).
Welcome to Episode 7, where we’ll be hearing an hour and a half of good music with a groove, exploring the outer reaches and inner-spaces of popular music.
We begin with ‘Oye Como Va’ by Santana, a song originally by Tito Puente, and then ‘The Race Machine’ by The Mark Duval Big Band, a piece of library music from the seventies.
Next we travel to Ethiopia for ‘Yètésfa Tezeta’ by Tèsfa-Maryam Kidané, a not very Ethiopian-sounding track from Ethiopian Modern Instrumental Hits. Sticking to the same period brings us to ‘The Champ’ by The Mohawks, a nice big chunk of fat swinging hammond organ.
The journey continues with ’50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain’ by Ten Years After, a British blues band who morphed into something a bit different. After this, we’re heading into musical non-sequitur territory, firstly with ‘A Shot In The Dark’ by Henry Mancini, the swinging big band theme from the Pink Panther film of the same name and then ‘The Selecter’ by The Selecter, a rare instrumental Two Tone tune.
A band from Scotland that doesn’t exist any more is Sons & Daughters. The track ‘Monsters’ is from their second album, released by Domino records. After that we get to play sample spotting with ‘Get Up’ by Vernon Burch, somehow this episode’s only funk track.
The second half begins with another Tito Puente song, ‘Para Los Rumberos’, this time performed by the latin music legend himself. It is followed by the joyous romp of ‘Loop De Loop’ by Soul Sisters from 1964.
Following that is ‘Cowgirl’ by Underworld, a fusion of dance and rock music featuring cut-up lyrics in the David Bowie method, that he in turn borrowed from William Burroughs. Things slow down now, with ‘The Human Abstract’ by David Axelrod and ‘Space Spiritual’ by The Nat Adderley Sextet. The two tracks, both produced by Axelrod, are an aural chamomile tea with honey to sooth the soul.
Less of a balm is ‘Salamandrina’ by Einstürzende Neubauten, the band who pioneered industrial music back when that meant making music with power tools, a practice they had relaxed somewhat by the time they recorded this gentler number. The Make Up, a post punk band playing garage rock and soul, are next, with a live recording of ‘We Can’t Be Contained’. That’s followed by Scottish guitar folk virtuoso Bert Jansch, with ‘Blackwater Side’ a song notably ‘borrowed’ by Led Zeppelin.
We close out this episode with a bit of fluff, or at least jazz fluff, with ‘Mickey Mouse’ by Jimmy Smith.
Really enjoying the mixes Stewart
Thank you! It’s good to know someone’s listening.
Yes I am Stewart, so keep on keepin’ on!