Moon Wiring Club Mix

A new MOST UNUSUAL HOUR MWC MIX

The first hour here is a classic mix from Moon Wiring Club. I was just alerted to this in his newsletter today. His Mixes are always essential and make great companion pieces to his LPs Enjoy! 

Happy New Year People!

Akofa Akoussah ~ "La Lem"

 

La Lem Akofa Akoussah from the album Akofa Akoussah.

Check out the psychedelic charms of fabulous Togolese singer Akofa Akoussah. I think she only made this one solo LP from 1976 which was reissued by Mr Bongo, I think, a coupla years back. Those vocals & that guitar! What more do need? I've got the record somewhere and it's ace! 

Akiko Yano - ごはんができたよ - 6 Dogs Awaiting

Love this tune. This was reissued this year, I think, by a company who put out reissues. If you love this tune, like I do, you should definitely get it. Can't be bothered going to the record room to find the details-

*Oh fucking youtube here it is!

Holy Jungle Mess (Original Thunderdome X​-​mas Edition 1994 Mix) - Marc Acardipane

Merry Phuture Christmas! Gloomcore-Jungle Christmas trak! Wicked! Still the future. Still the best.   

The Jackson 5 - Forever Came Today

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE ORIGINS OF THE DISCO BASS

The Jackson 5 - Forever Came Today (1975)

I love how avant-gardists & no wave type rockers seem to think they had a monopoly on bizarre, unorthodox & mutated forms of popular music. This track right here here is more subversive than a thousand records made by artists of those aforementioned sub-genres. This is the real deal where the mat is pulled from beneath pop music's feet. Forever Came Today is an astounding piece of experimentation that is innovative, strange and yet still compelling pop music. This bass-line is something else. It feels like it came from another planet! The song structure is really luxuriant, rapturous and free. The term mutant-disco has always annoyed me as it was a fallacy. Disco & Dub were ahead of that game as they had already deviated from normality all within the confines of their genre. They had already severed, sliced and reconstructed their genres to make the music even more pleasurable than previously imagined. Disco had deformed before any such notions of conforming to deform. This tune still sounds fresh today!  

DJ Zirk - 2 Thick + DJ Squeeky - Hog Killin'

Dj. Zirk feat. Tom Skeemask & Buck Shotz - 2 Thick (1993) 

This was the best 27 yearz ago & even better now. This scene was so DIY & regional they didn't give a fuck about what the outside world wanted because it didn't want them. Artists just wanted to be just as good or better than the other local Memphis artists. There was no internet file sharing so things were kept pretty insular and local. Sure Memphis rappers had heard west coast, east coast and Texan shit but none of them apart from the southern contingent had heard the Memphis stuff. It was all about killing it with the beats, verses & flows. Playing at the peak of your creative powers. This is surely what made the scene so strong and unique.

2 Thick is DJ Zirk's seminal and most sampled track. Zirk and DJ Squeeky were good friends. I have always assumed Zirk learnt his production chops from Squeaky but I might be wrong. DJ Squeeky is credited with creating the original trap beats around 92/93. He was also using rappers such as Tom Skeemask, Criminal Manne, Gangsta Blac & Yo Lynch who did the "double time flows & triplets"* People incorrectly now call this, 20+ years after the fact, the Migos flow. Anyway Squeeky & Zirc, the Memphis beat masters, often used the same pool of rappers I guess like Zaytoven, Metro Boomin and Sonny Digital did in Atlanta in the 10s. 

Hog Killin' one of the classic DJ Squeeky productions from I guess 94 (?) featuring Lil Grove, Outlaw & Criminal Manne. It's not on discogs that I can see but hey it's right here on the youtubes!

* Lucas Foster. See his 2017 DJ Squeeky article here.

Kingpin Skinny Pimp - Good To Go (1994)

Before Position Normal & Ariel Pink there was zero budget hazy lo-fi 90s Memphis Hip-Hop! Kingpin Skinny Pimp was the godfather of the Gimisum Family, one of the city's best posse's during the 90s. Due to the Weirdest Hiphop Cover Art account on Instagram unearthing all the worst album cover art of regional 90s & 00s hip-hop, I've gone back to listening to 90 Memphis rap big time. I might be here for some time because I think this is just about the best music sub-genre ever. It just doesn't fit neatly anywhere putting it on the outside of everything in hip hop at the time. I guess some of this stuff got played in cars and clubs but it really feels like music for being wasted at home either on the couch or at a bbq. I'm still waiting for a book to be written on this amazing DIY cassette culture scene. It's not just the eerie recorded in their mum's toilet aesthetic that is appealing. An entire different creeping rapping flow was invented but who originated it is a contentious issue. Memphis rap themes were innovative too. They added horror, psychosis, suicidal depression, the occult, devil worshipping and apocalyptic paranoia to the criminal, pimpin & homicidal gangster game. There were also stacks of bad-ass lady rappers which was unlike most rap scenes at the time that I know of. The selling of the tapes was different too. They were often sold from stereo & car retailers. Details on the scene are still pretty sketchy with loads of wrong infos on Discogs and other sites.      

Anyway this Skinny Pimp tune is pretty out there with it's no fi psychedelic singing amongst the rapping & laid back beats. Then there's that crazy clunky sample intrusion at the 3.17 mark. What an insane trip. What year this was released is anybody's guess. It might be 1993 and it's possibly from 1995 but I'm gonna go for Memphis Rap's crowning year 1994.  

Brook Benton - Rainy Night In Georgia

 

This was on in the background until the deep soul engulfed me at 3.07 then he continued to take it to fucking church for the rest of the song! Oh my I've had to replay it another seven times! This is performed over 10 years after Brook Benton topped the charts with with this gorgeous Tony Joe White tune and he is in fine form! This version kills his original. He is a showman and he's feelin it and the Lord's feelin it and he's feelin God back and it's smile-time! Halle-fuckin-luh!

"Yes...Raining over here...Raining over there...Raining over here...Raining over there...RAINING ALL OVER THE WORLD!"

BETTY GRIFFIN - Free Spirit (1980)

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE SOULFUL SYNTH-FUNK DISCOTEQUE

Get Free! Put Funky Peace in your synth soul. Betty got the FUNK! & the FREE SPIRIT! Whoever the band is here I would like them very much to play at my next BBQ. If only it was still 1980. Free Spirit is so in the damn funkay pocket, It's astounding! Then wait for the synth break. It is synth delicious or is that synth-a-licious?! Thank You Betty Griffin & band & Greg Belson's Divine Disco: American Gospel Disco (1974 - 1984) compilation and the Cultures Of Soul people for releasing it. 

You - Gloria Griffin (1978)

SPACE DEBRIS GOES TO THE GOSPEL DISCO

 

 Gloria Griffin - YOU (1978)

This is soo good! So infectious. So DISCO JESUS! It makes me wanna go to church in the 70s! The rhythm is craazy awesome. The break at l.50 is classic then the bass kicks in, noice! I first heard this on the Cultures Of Soul Records comp Greg Belson's Divine Disco: American Gospel Disco (1974 To 1984) that came out in 2016. Get Down or Get on Up ah! On the Jesus juice!

"There have been lots of people

 No one like you!"