Review
One of the most consistent bands in the history of music, Kool & the Gang deliver a great LP once again! The album is primarily a funk, party type of vibe, however, the jazz element is brought to life in the title track “Wild & Peaceful” (which happens to be an AMAZING piece of music). The thing that always sticks out most about this groups music, is their unique ability to arrange songs, sounds simple…but its not. The way the music is written and performed is a thing of beauty, it’s timeless music, it’s special music. This is easily one of my favorite albums from these guys. Enjoy…

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Hollywood Swinging

Jungle Boogie

Funky Stuff

Wild and Peaceful

Design
I absolutely love this cover! The painting has an intentionally abstracted perspective, but a really unique illustration style overall. It also takes the title of the LP very seriously…the composition is made up of several wild animals (animals that typically cannot co-exist), living together peacefully within their environment. The colors are sort of dim overall, but that adds a nice warmth to the piece…which works very nicely with the title track (which I’ve uploaded for your listening pleasure above). Another really nice element is the choice of type! Seeing as though the art is pretty busy, the type needed to find a way to live on the page…the protruding knockout lettering did the trick. Adding a slight arch to the type helps it stand on its own as well. Minor detail like that can go a long way…it’s all about detail, ALWAYS.

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Additional info on Kool & the Gang

The Message
Autumn is a bit different from what I’ve traditionally created. Here I’m mixing deep house, nu-soul, r&b, and electronic music. It’s all about the vibes this go-round, hopefully you all can feel it! Enjoy…

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Tracklisting:
Eric Roberson – N2U
N’Dambi – Call Me
Aya – Love Yourself
Stevie Wonder – My Love Is On Fire (DJ Spinna Remix)
Peven Everett – Time After Time
Alison Crockett – Crossroads ( DJ Spinna Remix)
Andre 3000 – She Lives In My Lap
Stephanie McKay – Peace & Quiet
Masinuh – Construction
Soulquarians – Saturday Night
Jamiroquai – Alright
Vikter Duplaix – Grover (Remix)
A.G. Thomas – The 1, 2
Randy Watson Experience – Grover III
Tony Toni Tone – I Couldn’t Keep It To Myself
Dam-Funk – Fantasy
Alison Crockett – U R
Danny Madden – Facts of Life
Peven Everett – Stuck
Dam-Funk – Mirrors
Shafiq – Love Still Hurts

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Also, be sure to check out my other mixes here.

Peace.

Review
Gordon’s War is one of the best blaxploitation action film soundtracks ever created. It’s the quintessential funk record of the 70’s. Wah-wah guitars, killer drum breaks, smooth grooves, all of these elements make for a great album…and the film-inspired instrumentation make for an amazing soundtrack. Each track tells a story through the music, just read the song titles…close your eyes, then listen. Every 70’s film had a classic “chase” scene, typically these scenes are accompanied by a funky upbeat tune to keep you at the edge of your seat…well this albums chase scene is called “Hot Wheels”, and it has to be one of the BEST pieces of funk that I’ve ever heard. Most of the record was created by a little-known studio group called “Badder Than Evil”, and I have to say, prior to this record I’ve never heard of them. They’re not really well-documented outside of the work they did for this particular soundtrack, but regardless, they did their thing! Enjoy…

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Hot Wheels

Tell That Man to Go to Hell

Just Plain Luther

Harlem Dreams

Design
I really dig the lockup at the top. “Gordon’s War” typeset in Avant Garde Bold, with the words being separated by a black graphic of a Tommy Gun…with bullet holes randomly placed throughout the words, and even throughout the “featured artists” graphic on the left. All of these aspects are cool…but it doesn’t stop there, below is an illustration of Gordon (Paul Winfield), 9mm in hand, stomping on a heroin syringe! That’s an amazing image there…especially since the movie is about Gordon returning home from Vietnam, and cleaning up the drug scene in his neighborhood. But what puts it over the top is the cherrywine-colored tuxedo, pumped fist, and the big heel protruding forward (it’s simply just a dope perspective). Having this cover on white gives the whole thing more shape, and even a weird bit of a nice tension, having the headshot of Barbara Mason stuffed at the top right. Super cool cover.

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Additional info on Gordon’s War

Review
Continuously funky, Kool & the Gang deliver AGAIN, with the release of their second LP, Live at P.J.’s. These guys have such an amazing sound, releasing a live album only adds value to the music…puts it over the TOP, it really gives us a sense of the personality of each musician as well. Listening closely, you can really begin to hear the improv, how they’re playing off of the vibe from one another…and you can even catch the mistakes. That’s when you know you’re deep into the grooves, when you can actually FEEL the music…Kool & the Gang has the ability to that to listeners. At this point the group hadn’t achieved any commercial success (which is when they were at their best in my opinion, anything released on De-Lite was classic), so the sound is raw…street…straight from the heart. Enjoy…
Site map

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Dujii

N.T.

The Penguin

Sombrero Sam

Design
This cover is nice because it captures the night of the performance. That aspect alone is what makes this such a powerful cover. If it was anything other than what it is, the impact would be lost. I really like how they used the outlined font over the dark photograph, that preserves the prominence of the image without being too distracted. At first glance, it looks like a “blah” cover, right? Have a second look and appreciate it for impact and composition.

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Additional info on Kool & the Gang

Wax Poetics Issue 37 is out now! The (MJ) Michael Jackson Issue, I can’t wait to pick my copy up, possibly today (but the Borders near my job gets Wax Poetics shipments SUPER late). You can check it out and also buy it here.

Peace.

The Message
One of my favorite beats right here! This is an obscure jazz record flipped into a hot hip-hop track. The sample is seemingly looped, but pay very close attention to detail on this one, there are a lot of things going on in the Flipped version that aren’t happening in the OG version of the record. If you’re deep into music, you’ll catch the subtle nuances. Enjoy…

Check it out…

Original:

Flipped:

Peace.

Review
This is Heatwave’s debut LP. In short, this record was very successful and earned them respect. It’s a diverse record, but very strict in its genre disciplines throughout. They touch on all sounds from soul love ballads, to disco, to funk, to jazz even. Heatwave had a very buttoned-up sound, very clean and crisp…something I’m usually not drawn into, but they were produced by Rod Temperton, so one cannot help but to fall in love with the music. The lead singer Johnnie Wilder, Jr is another major reason why this album gets major play, his voice had craaaaazy range, as expressed in the classic, “Always and Forever” where he demonstrates his ability to effectively sing in falsetto, tenor, and baritone without flaw! Enjoy the tunes…

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Always and Forever

All You Do Is Dial

Lay It On Me

Design
The cover is a funky illustration of their record melting on the concrete, obviously there’s a heatwave in town (pun intended). It’s a strong cover, however, the type is not helping out…not playing its part, it makes the cover seem a tad cheesy with the wavy effect added to it. The melting scene itself did the job.

The cover that I have is the US released LP. The group had an alternate cover for the European release of the record which looked like this.

Video

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Additional info on Heatwave