Archive for the Funk Category
The legendary Gil-Scott Heron, the black radical poet, musician, composer, author, purveyor of spoken word and singer (whom many refer to lovingly with titles like “the black Bob Dylan” and “the godfather of rap”), has been long presumed dead due to his conspicuous absence from music. Though kept alive through retrospectives and reverential referencing of him by those whom he influenced, Scott-Heron himself seemingly vanished 15 years ago after an experimental and efficacious music career which spanned four decades. Like several of his contemporaries, Scott-Heron accrued a tremendous following and much of his success during the 1970’s and 1980’s, a short time after which he seemed to all but disappear. When Scott-Heron began failing to show up for scheduled concerts, rumors began to circulate over the course of many years about his cocaine abuse & health troubles. MORE »
If you take a look at the recently-published list of Time Magazine’s “50 Best Inventions of 2009″, you will find many technologically significant inventions — NASA’s missles, a racing car made entirely out of food, and even a human-powered vending machine. Among these inventions, a surprising (and deserved) addition has appeared: the YouTube remix projects of Israeli musician & composer Kutiman as seen in his prodigious website, ThruYOU. ThruYOU, completed in just two months time, is a sweeping work of musical “found art”, deftly and intelligently remixed into miniature funk masterpieces. Ophir Kutiel, better known to the world as Kutiman, spent weeks searching through YouTube videos of dozens of musicians, primarily amateurs, to find patches of instrumentation and vocals from which he would invent his virtual funk quilt. MORE »
Well how are you doing, my brethren? Some of you already know I’ve been battling a series of health problems the last few months which have kept me from updating regularly. What can I say, I got a bit unlucky on the health front.
But enough about me, let’s talk about a major day in the world of funk freakitude: today marks the reissue of Betty Davis’s oft-bootlegged 1975 funk gem Nasty Gal alongside her previously-unreleased phantasm of funk, Is It Love or Desire?. Nasty Gal is an essential funk recording, once only traded as an 8th or 9th-generation copy (complete with tape hiss and fuzz) amongst hard-core diggers, while Is It Love or Desire? was never released, shelved by her label due to creative differences. Thanks to the hard-work of Light in the Attic Records, both are now officially out and ready to add to your collection. More information, an MP3, and details on how you can win the above limited-edition poster after the jump.
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