Here’s the newest offering in the ongoing effort to force spring through music. Couldn’t decide if Reggae or Hip Hop would be more effective, so I went with both. This is one 45 in a series put out by Taggy Matcher, each one a dancefloor grenade. For how much these two genres have in common, it’s surprising how few times they’ve been successfully combined.  Collect the 45’s or grab Taggy’s new album that compiles them all in one place - Reggae Hip Hop Series Volume 1 - and hop in your whip, pop it in your deck, snap your neck, and witness the fitness!

Artist:  Taggy Matcher
Album:  Reggae Hip Hop Series Volume 1
Year:  2010
Label:  Stix (France)

HEY!  Let’s keep the time dial set to 1973, but let’s get out of Jersey and head to the dance floors of Paris with your host Marc Aryan and his floor burner “Liberte”!  This track starts out with what sounds like a space guitar from the future (that may or may not have been sampled/repurposed for the Beastie Boys track “Intergalactic” - another dimension, another dimension…) with a french Jorge Ben lamenting over the top.  Cool, I’m in…wait…what?…halfway through he decideds to kick it into gear (HEY!) and test the treads on your dancing shoes.

Had a hard time finding out too much about Marc and this track (googling Aryan isn’t as helpful as you may think).  Found a decent overview of his life here that talks about his recording studio (Katy) and Label (Markal).  Lots of greats recorded at Katy - Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Diana Ross to name a few.

Artist: Marc Aryan
Album: LA LETTRE//LIBERTE 45
Year: 1973
Label: Markal

Oh please oh please oh please… just gimme just one more chance!

Live from Rahway Correctional in lovely New Jersey… The Escorts!

The Escorts were the brainchild of producer George Kerr. I’m short on time so I’m just gonna quote the group’s official bio from over here:

Originally, I didn’t feel like going but once I was in the prison and I heard all these musicians, I liked what I saw. I remember turning to my wife and telling her I thought it would be great to record the group. She thought I was out of my mind and that I was never going to get it done. I started talking to the prison warden and explained that I was a professional record producer and he had the same reaction.

and…

After the album came out, we got all these letters from people who wanted to see them. I went back to the Superintendent of Prisons and asked if we could do a show…” With much negotiation and with thirty policemen on duty to ensure security, The Escorts performed at Newark Symphony Hall, shackled on the way to and from the venue but clad in tuxedos and dress shoes for the show, which was a sell-out and major success.

The original lineup featured on this album: Reggie Haynes, Lawrence Franklin, Robert Arrington, William Dugger, Stephen Carter, Frank Heard, and Marion Murphy.

Artist: The Escorts [Myspace]
Album: All We Need is Another Chance
Year: 1973
Label: Alithia Records

I’m not sure if Miss Broadway qualifies for Epic Tuesdays….but for my money it has all of the requirements for a great, and yes epic, disco track. First off it clocks in at around seven and a half minutes….which for a disco track is moderate…but it’s what happens in those 7:30 minutes that truly makes the track epic. Miss Broadway contains 4 elements that make it one of my favorite tracks ever. A) Ridiculously tight and funky rhythm section…oh that trotting bassline! B) BAD-ASS vocals! I mean come on…my girl is belting it out. She sings with this almost punk attitude….you know she means business. C) Fiddle/Cello/Strings!! D) Funky-ass “Uh-huh…” breakdown.

All of these elements orchestrated into a seven and a half minute floor-burner spells epic to me…no? If not epic than a sick dance track that makes me happy-as-hell every time I hear it.

ARTIST: Belle Epoque
TRACK: Miss Broadway
ALBUM: Miss Broadway
YEAR: 1977
LABEL: Carrere

I recently picked up a vinyl copy of this classic underground disco album and it’s been blowing my doors off ever since. “Space Bass” is the lead off track and is a fine specimen of funky, cosmic disco equally suitable for the floor or a pot smoke filled living room….whatever you’re into man. Slick were apparently the backing band for Fat Larry…who had some pretty incredible disco feathers in his own cap (maybe I’ll post a Fat Larry track as a follow up). Dig the future-forward lyrics and sick ectoplasmic mono-synth lines. Head and toes folks….head and toes.

ARTIST: Slick
TRACK: Space Bass
YEAR: 1979

A little off track from the regular Brobot fare, but as we near the end of the aughts I got to thinking about the albums of the decade.  I know a lot of people want to make the argument that the “album” is dead, what with all the instantly downloadable tween twitter feeds and torrential bit mapping, but looking back there were some real gems.  Radiohead, Girl Talk, Broken Social Scene, to name a few.  I posted up this Wilco track because I listened to this album recently and it got me thinking about what other great albums came out this decade.  I picked this song because it’s was able to capture the defining moment of this decade, 9/11, in this amazing way even though it was written and recorded prior but released after.  I would love to get other people’s thoughts on other albums that did it for them this decade.  Maybe we’ll get our shit together and put together our own list?  Stay tuned!