Welcome to the dream. It’s important that, in spite of this historic and symbolic celebration of his birthday, each of us recognize that there remains so much work still to do in order that all people are able to truly experience the meaning of freedom symbolized in the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King.

How fortunate we are that we no longer have to wait for someone to help us make the dream a reality.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Happy Birthday, Dr. King.

I am getting geared up for my weekly and I’ve been listening to this way-out-of-print vinyl rip of New York City jazz-R&B-soul vocalist extraordinaire Sylvia Striplin’s Roy Ayers-produced 1981 funk-disco outing Give Me Your Love that (frankly) I don’t think gets much play these days. Well, if you’ve ever played Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, you’ve heard her on VCFL so…maybe a little play?

Sometimes that’s the best way to find out about new music: randomly. I mean, there’s just so much to digest in the world of music that you can’t possibly hear it all at one time. Discovery is the greatest part of this process. So, in that regard, check this out & if you’re in Memphis, come down and join me at Dish, 948 S. Cooper (corner of Cooper & Young) for new music, sushi from Sekisui, and a grip of delicious, reasonably-priced Asian-influenced tapas. They’ve also got hot/cold sake on tap & Jagermeister on tap as well.

Let’s get down, shall we?

Sylvia Striplin – Toy Box
Sylvia Striplin – Give Me Your Love

In a week during which retrospectives on 80’s electronic and hip-hop are the trend, it only seems fitting and appropriate to re-examine Manchester-born 808 State’s first (ed. note: it wasn’t their first single oops!) (and most well-known) recording, “Pacific State”. Mixed, remixed, repackaged and reissued innumerable times, the original version (which appeared on 1989’s EP Quadrastate) loses no power or edge with time. The perfection of their execution makes “Pacific State” the supreme benchmark of acid house: lush, synthetic harmonies blended with driving TR-808 rhythms.

I’d say we’re pretty lucky that Rephlex Records has just reissued a fully remastered edition of Quadrastate complete with additional tracks. If you dig what you’re hearing here, you’d do well to head on over to Amazon and pick up the remastered edition to hang on to.

808 State – Pacific State

The reissued Quadrastate is available from Amazon by clicking here.

If you know about the various houses left in the wake of this bloke named Jack, you must have been to the house Mark Farina built. His Mushroom Jazz series is the stuff of legend, but on the tremendously promising new effort Fabric 40: Mark Farina, we see Farina elegantly returning to the house he started building at his core — the one built during his early residency at famed Chicago underage hotspot Medusa; the years digging for vinyl at Gramaphone, all the while rubbing elbows with masters of the Chicago house music scene — Derrick Carter, Ralphie Rosario, J Dub, DJ Heather.

Farina’s charisma behind the turntables lies in his ability to integrate styles that aren’t always inherently cohesive. His version of house music blends his famed huge party soundscapes with the intimate “back room” grooves he loves so much. “When making the mix,” Farina says, “I played a sort of fictitious set at fabric on a night that doesn’t exist. Musically, I tried to capture the techy, jackin’ Chicago/SF side of the house spectrum – dubby, chunky tracks. I picked a good variation of underground goodies, a lot of which are unreleased or hopefully not on any other compilations. Tracks that have a good ’shelf life’ but that aren’t proven hits; hidden gems that might go over looked in this fast paced music era.”

Fabric 40: Mark Farina adds another worthwhile chapter to the ongoing legacies of both Fabric and Farina. Attention must be paid.

Frank Solano – The Blues Line (Tommy Largo Remix)

Fabric 40: Mark Farina can be pre-ordered from Amazon By Clicking Here.