Wozo ‎– Hydro-Electric

Wozo - Hydro-Electric (Music De Wolfe DWLP 3412 Power Source) 1980 

Cosmic library music at its best. Although I guess by the title of this track they were going for more of an environmental industrial engineering vibe. I mean it's all about the futuristic science and optimism of mankind so it all works well. 

In the mid/late 00s I thought those early records by neo-kosmische acts like Oneohtrix Point Never, Emeralds etc. sounded much closer to this kind of gear than say they did with Tangerine Dream.  

This track was used in the NASA documentary Space Shuttle: A Remarkable Flying Machine (1981) at the end when space shuttle Challenger was coming in for landing. Then used in the follow up doc STS-2 The Second Flight (1981) in the opening scene which is a flashback to the first flight's landing. 

Even as a 9 year old I used to think "Sure this is cool and all but it's not better than going to the moon is it? Why aren't they going beyond the moon?"

Anyway getting back to this 1980 Music De Wolfe LP Power Source, it's one of the great cosmic electronic library records. Every track is a little gem and thematically cohesive so it works like a cosmic-synth or sci-fi soundtrack record. You can just imagine all these tunes as part of an early 80s science documentary series or space age exhibit at the planetarium. 

Power Source is a classic instrumental synth album. On the back cover it states Unusual, atmospheric and futuristic moods played on electronic keyboards. I'd place it as one of the top British electronic LPs of 1980, vying for top spot with John Foxx's Metamatic. I don't recall this record being mentioned on that Synth Britannia documentary but perhaps it should have been.

Wozo info (and music uploads) on the interwebs is pretty scarce. The main guy behind this project is English fella John Hynde who also goes by the name of James Harrington and/or John Saunders. Saunders is also the man behind prolific production/library music act Astral Sounds who released over 20 LPs between 1977 & 1986 on labels like Music De Wolfe, Rouge and Hudson Music Company.  

You can listen to DWLP 3412 Power Source here 

David Gold/Gordon Rees - Like Summer

More golden carefree sounds. An ez tropical faux-bossa jam with that little bit of wah-wah puts this in the sweet summer soundz zone. As it's the middle of winter and I'm freezing my bollocks off this seems rather fitting. 

Like Summer was originally from the 1973 KPM 1127 LP Happy Rainbows which also featured compositions from James Clark, Steve Gray and the legendary Alan Hawkshaw. 

Laurie Robertson Murphy - Breezing Along

Breezing Along - Laurie Robertson Murphy (1979)
There was a time sometime in the 00s when library music was pretty much all I listened to. At the start of the sharity blog thing there were a bunch of collectors putting up all manner of impossibly rare and unheard library delights. I reckon I must have downloaded between a thousand and fifteen hundred library LP win-rar files. I've got a hard drive gathering dust in the bureau where all these sounds reside. .... 

The whole thing started in the mid 90s when the exotica and easy listening scene had to go further afield to find deeper cuts and a bunch of great library compilation series cds followed: The Sound Gallery, Blow Up Presents Exclusive Blend, Mo'Plen, Beat At Cinecitta, Music For Dancefloors, Cinemaphonic et al. I should go through my old cobwebby cds, I loved these collections.

Okay I'm off on a tangent. This tune I think I only discovered recently. It's taken from an American Library called Major Records who I know nothing about. Roger Roger did some work for the label apparently though.

Breezing Along is a perfectly apt title for this song that just breezes along like a soundtrack for somebody just breezing along. A sweet low-key funky jam with splendacious strings, it comes from Production Music 6114 LP a 1979 Major Records library. Laurie Robertson Murphy contributed five tracks. The only other credit I can find for Laurie is another Major Records Library from 1978 Untitled 6109 of which she contributed five tracks also. 

Laurie Robertsson Murphy is quite the mysterious figure. I'm guessing it's a woman. If it is a woman she might have been married to soundtrack and library composer Walter Murphy who also worked for Major Records. 

Taana Gardner - Heartbeat

Taana Gardner - Heartbeat (1981)

This 12" Club Version mix on West End Records is by Larry Levan. My God it's t's the jam. Everything here, I'm sure, is intuitively designed for maximum psychedelic dancefloor affect. That funky bass, yes it's a funky sensation. That slowed down disco beat makes this entire monster jam an outstanding anomaly: weird and infectious. The breathtaking hand clap science is also absolutely fascinating. The hook that is the hypnotic swirling funky guitar riff that begins to mutate at 4:12 in on an irresistible groove. The break at 5:57 that just halts everything is so on the money, I mean how could it not be with the alchemy of synergy taking place here, everything seems to be serendipitously falling into the right place. 

Dre surely ripped this off for his G-funk blueprint did he not? This particular version of Heartbeat seems to be a vastly influential track. Don't let that put you off though because it's infinitely better than what it influenced. With regard to the history and aspects of this tune the club version of Heartbeat is the main show. 

Heartbeat like the previous post's Funky Sensation by Gwen McCrae  was written, arranged and produced by Kenton Nix in association with Henry Batts. So they were having a killer 1981. 

GWEN McCRAE - FUNKY SENSATION

Gwen McCrae - Funky Sensation (1981)

This is THE jam!

Get your foots out for some toe tappin...it's is the funky sensation!!!

Funky Sensation's right in that funky post-disco boogie zone and it's a sweet spot innit. Only problem is it's way too short. We need another ten or fifteen minutes of this!

Frankie Valli - Swearin' To God

Frankie Valli - Swearin' To God (1975)

Francesco Castelluccio with Bob Crewe producing and writing, you can't go wrong. Sweet funky disco love song with an ace guest appearance from Patti Austin. The more you listen the more you realise there is a lot going on here. I mean Swearin' To God's got those divine strings, big brass action, that funky wah-wah Shaft scratch guitar and an even funkier bassline. This epic is also a trumpet and saxamophone extravaganza, with an array a saxes including my favourite saxophone, the rarely heard in pop music outside of Pet Sounds, baritone sax. 

For me though it's all about those congas. Conga players never get the credit they deserve and yet they contribute so much to a dance floor number. I mean they are integral just about more than anyone else as to whether your disco track is going to be a toe-tapping success or not. So I'd like to highlight the wonderful Miss Bobbye Hall. I'm assuming this is her as she's the only one credited in the sleeve notes with playing congas although there are also several percussionists with credits too. Hall's credits are vast and many, you've heard her play congas and bongos on a lot of records throughout the years including those by Judee Sill, Boz Scaggs, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, The Doobie Brothers etc. 

Arvo Pärt - Arbos

Arvo Pärt - Arbos (1987)

Another short but sweet bit of 80s Pärt. More bells. This time though they're accompanied by the insanely intense brass from the Brass Ensemble Staatsorchester Stuttgart. This was the title track from his second ECM album. Pärt was on a roll here with his solo ECM albums that continued on with a classic run of five masterpieces from 1984 to 1993: Tabula Rasa, Arbos, Passio, Miserere and Te Deum.

Nolan Porter - If I Could Only Be Sure

Nolan Porter - If I Could Only Be Sure (1972)

Another one from the "wow" playlist. When this came on... just wow. That opening guitar line took took my breath away and my heart went funny. My body had a memory of this song before my mind did. A vibe like this is priceless, it's simply the best. All the elements are in perfect unison to create one of the greatest toe tappers in history. 

My brain's not functioning beyond "ME like" today so it's handy that the fans of this very special tune in the comments are unusually articulate.

- A bass riff to die for...

- My world changes from winter blues to summer sunshine in just a few minutes...

- Absolutely stunning - beautifully understated - sends a shiver down my spine!

- Quietly addictive..and that opening riff! digs real deep!

- Great organ bridge moving to solo guitar...

- Proper music...

- So cool...

- This is faultless...

- Doesn't come any better. Pure 100% class...

- Sublime...

Nobody mentioned that insistent rhythm which makes If I Could Only Be Sure so joyously infectious.

Play it again Sam.

Mickey Moonshine - Name It You Got It

Mickey Moonshine - Name It You Got It (1974)

A fabulous toe tappin' symphonic-soul number that sounds like a Curtis Mayfield production but is actually some dude from Scotland. Everything here is just pop perfection. I was going through a mysterious playlist I'd created on youtube a while ago called "wow" and this popped up. So it was actually a "wow what a great tune" moment so I thanked my past self for compiling this list. I imagine this is some kind of northern soul classic. 

Name It You Got It will put a smile on your face, a spring in your step and make you feel glad to be alive!...well for the duration of the track at least but hey that vibe just may stick with you for the rest of the day.

Rewind.

[Later research] 

Reveals the music director here is none-other than producer, arranger and guitarist Pip Williams. His prolific production and arrangement credits include Sweet, Walker Brothers, Status Quo, The Moody Blues, Shirley Bassey, Richard O'Brien, Dr. Feelgood, Barclay James Harvest, Geordie, Mud, Uriah Heep, Colin Blunstone, Carl Douglas, Ringo Starr, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, The Kinks and many more. 

Arvo Pärt - Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten

Arvo Pärt - Cantus in Memoriam of Benjamin Britten (1984)
Because sometimes the best music is the most obvious music cf. The Rolling Sones. Bells bells bells. Listening to this just makes me want more bells. I kinda wish some mental improv group would do like an hour long interpretation of this with way more bells. Also why didn't Arvo write way more suff for bells?

There's a shitload of versions of this on youtube but it's a case of the original is best. This was the recording most of us first heard Cantus In Memorium...  as it featured on Pärt's breakthrough album Tabula Rasa on ECM in 1984. I can't find an earlier version but one must exist because, if I recall correctly, the head honcho of ECM heard it on his car radio years before he ever tracked Arvo down and organised the Tabula Rasa recording project. Perhaps it was a live radio only concert version... who knows?

Five of the best minutes in recorded music history.