We kick off the mixtape with Suso Sáiz, an Avant-garde musician who has been at the forefront of Spain’s experimental music scene since the late 70s. In 2022, he released Resonant Bodies, a calm, mellow body of work that revolves around communication via resonance. Through vibrational energies and a self-oscillating orchestra of foggy sounds, the seminal ambient composer investigates how, without actions or words, solely by proximity, we unconsciously and organically influence the frequency of others.
Three years after covering The Cure's 'A Forest' (Nov 2022 mixtape), Alva Noto enlists Martin Gore (one of their founding members) to lend vocals to yet another deep and confident cover. This time, he reinterprets David Bowie's "Low"-era classic 'Subterraneans' (Nov 2020 mixtape) and brings on board William Basinski to duplicate Bowie's memorable sax solo. The original song was written for the people who remained in East Berlin after the wall was built, and Noto's haunting take on it follows the same spirit, illustrating the struggle of withdrawal.
We continue with slow guitar patterns and shimmering strings on this Bohannon quintessential 70s soul and funk fusion. The American musician started as a drummer with Stevie Wonder and other major Motown acts before blazing a trail of his own. Hypnotic and spiritual, ‘Save Their Souls’ draws you subtly into its smokey ambiance.
Ben E. King was an American soul and R&B singer who wrote and sang the original version of 'Stand By Me'. Known for gentle and soulful ballads, he pleasantly surprised the world in 1975 when he released 'Supernatural Thing, Pt. 1' a crisp funk tune that brought him back to the top of the charts after a long tepid phase. Effortless singing, so much soul. The definition of R&B elegance.
Vince Montana's work with the Salsoul Orchestra is pure sonic craftsmanship. No wonder the American composer and percussionist was called the "Godfather of disco". On his 1978 sci-fi-inspired album A Dance Fantasy Inspired by Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, he incorporates elements of John William's original score and runs with it. 'Warp Factor II' is a silky smooth piece featuring rumbling bass maneuvers, trance-like drums and his unmistakable trademark vibraphone.
Bill Withers oozes soul, and funk comes pouring out. You think you’ve heard his best songs, then you come across this gem, and your mind goes loco. The second part of this track is some of the funkiest experimental downtempo I’ve ever heard. What a bass line! It can’t get any groovier. This is IT. Stand up and take your shoes off!
Legendary Daniele Baldelli is arguably the first DJ who pushed the Italo Disco sound back in the late 60s and later on gave birth to the slow-chugging Balearic sound. This was a time when clubs were completely new territories and DJ equipment inexistent — a time when it seemed like anything was possible. Passionate about crate digging and confidently mixing sounds from different genres, he was among the most open-minded and respected cosmic disco DJs around. 4 decades in, ‘Isotropofunk’ is a reminder that he still is.
A Covid project born in 2020, this enigmatic Milanese music collective (you'll barely find anything about them online) mixes psychedelic rock and Italo disco with bewitching lyrics to deliver a pulverizing sound. 'Akapulco' has been on repeat this month; it's fierce, delirious and goddam funky.
The New Orleans group The Meters are considered by many to be one of the founding fathers of funk. Their records served as ambassadors for the New Orleans sound to the rest of the world, with the 1974 deep funk classic Rejuvenation leading the pack. It features ‘It Ain’t No Use’, a glorious combination of four acclaimed musicians jamming in perfect unity — 12 minutes of brilliance.
Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat is impossible not to move to. His groove and beat are irresistible. Taken from his 1972 album Shakara, ‘Lady’ is a laid-back, extended 13-min jam of intoxicating raw funk soul. It finds the Nigerian musician and political dissident (more on that in the April 2021 mixtape) employing sarcasm to criticize modern African women for becoming overly westernized and distancing themselves from their own culture.
Neal Francis channels warm, analog sounds of New Orleans rhythms, Chicago blues, and early 70s rock n’ roll in his 2019 album Changes. The influences (Allen Toussaint, Leon Russell, The Meters, The Rolling Stones) are unmistakable, and the Chicago-based musician pays tribute to those masters, but he has his own story to tell: after going through a destructive phase that almost cost him his life, he’s getting back on his feet and re-launching himself as a solo artist. The result is refreshing material you don’t often come across in the contemporary funk and soul scene.
One of the leading lights of the 80s middle-east pop scene, Hamid El-Shaeri steadily made a name for himself as Egypt's leading pioneer of westernized synthesizer pop. His dreamy albums feature arrangements that are so tasteful the material has aged incredibly well. With its airy harmonies and effortless feel, 'Law Konty' is a flawless, mood-improving song about love.
Primarily a jazz artist, American singer-songwriter Michael Franks also crossed over to pop and rock fans throughout his decades-spanning career. Often backed by an elite group of jazz side-men, the dollar bin jazz musician released The Art of Tea in 1973, a compilation of his best songs with a relaxing nature that suggests a kettle of finely brewed tea. In this slow-funk song, he tells the story of a man observing the behavior of monkeys in a zoo and drawing parallels to human behavior.
Trumpeter Don Cherry is about as vital a figure as there is to find in the world of free jazz, and his 1972 Organic Music Society as far out there as Cherry ever got in his boundary-pushing exploration of world fusion music. With so many different players and parts, this spiritual record melds the ancient and the modern and sees Cherry flirting with mystic chanting.
We end with a celebrated classic of the early minimalist ambient period. The 18-minute opener of Harold Budd’s second album The Pavilion of Dreams offers a vignette of celestial sound that is comfortably warm and lightly melancholic. The British composer (Dec 2020 mixtape) combines ethereal melodies communicated by Marion Brown’s saxophone with glissando accompaniment to deliver a serene work of art.
