Analog Soul
Celebrating British Soul Music, Turkish psych-rock and one of the most important albums of this century
Greetings from sunny France! I’m currently on my way to Paris for a few days away with my family, which is most welcome after a very hectic month. I did have some news to share with you all, which I was surprised I hadn’t already mentioned. My DJ activities are few and far between these days so it was a real thrill to put together a set for the good folks at My Analog Journal. I’m a little cautious about video DJ outlets, but MAJ is relatively hype-free, despite its large audience. I was given free reign to pick a theme and went with UK soul music of all styles. There’s some street soul, lovers rock, acid jazz and neo-soul - go check it out here and let me know if you’re feeling it.
March 31st • Mazhar & Fuat - Türküz Türkü Çağırırız!
The duo of Mazhar Alanson and Fuat Güner released this, their only LP, in 1973 whilst their fellow MFO band-mate Özkan UÄŸur was doing military service. As the story goes Alanson and Güner had met in a record shop in the late 60s, with Güner inviting Alanson, who he'd not met before, to listen to The Beatles Revolver with him. They went on to form the band Kaygısızlar (Carefree), largely performing covers of Beatles, CSNY and Rolling Stones tracks.Â
After the band broke up they linked up with Özkan UÄŸur to form MFO, who went on to represent Turkey in Eurovision a couple of times, as well as being one of the country's most enduring pop/rock acts. The title of this record, Türküz Türkü Çağırırız! means, (I think) 'We are Turkish, we sing in Turkish' - Turkish friends please correct me if I've got that wrong! It's an interesting title in the context of the influences of mersey-beat, folk-rock and country that appear throughout the LP.Â
Taking western pop and spinning it through different cultures and languages creates something completely unique, and whilst this is a much more common phenomenon these days, I can imagine it'd have been quite a shock in the 50s and 60s as pop culture wound itself around the globe to an unprecedented degree.
The results in this instance are underpinned by great melodic pop cuts alongside mystical folk ballads and psyched out instrumentation. It made me realise how relatively rare it is that I listen to music in other languages. I wonder if I'd like it more or less if I knew what they were saying...it reminds me of when I discovered that one of my favourite Marcos Valle tracks Estrelar is actually about going to the gym.Â
Removing meaning places vocals alongside any other instrument in the musical palette which certainly changes how we react to it. I suppose it really depends on the lyrics as to whether this is a good or a bad thing, but either way I'm glad to have this record on the shelf - whatever it is they're singing about.
April 1st • Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast
I think this may be the album I listen to most that I haven't previously written about. It also happens to be a very important album in UK music history; more on that later.
From a personal perspective, when this emerged in 2000 it seemed to be tailor-made for me. It wrapped up the indie sensibility of my teens with the hip hop experimentation of Beck and The Beastie Boys and a dash of Mancunian attitude. It was a thrill to connect the dots between Grand Central/Fat City and the world of NME via Andy Votel and his Twisted Nerve imprint. It also represented a growing sense that musical tribes weren't straightjackets, and instead could be fluid and look outward instead of solely in on themselves.Â
It helped that the album was genuinely brilliant, blending jangling indie-pop with introspective folk-rock across a meandering hour, replete with short instrumental cuts that seemed to echo rap album skits and interludes. I saw him play at The Cockpit in Leeds around this time; I think we got lucky as he had the balance between rambling storytelling and actually playing the songs about right. Other shows veered more towards the former which could leave fans feeling a little short-changed.
As mentioned this record is an important one too, representing a shift for arguably the most vital record label in modern UK music history. From its conception in 1989, XL Recordings had been a dance label, and a very good one at that. Starting with their early hardcore and techno recordings they'd gone on to enjoy chart success in the early 90s rave boom, culminating with The Prodigy's global dominance in 97. At this point the label almost folded in itself until boss Richard Russell decided to take a complete left turn by releasing Badly Drawn Boy's debut album. It went on to win the Mercury Music prize and XL was reborn, a first step along a path that led them to The White Stripes, Dizzee, Adele, Jai Paul and the rest.
Some records are good, and some are important. The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast is both - and the fact that it was never bettered by its creator shows just how much luck and timing have a part to play in how the world turns and how music evolves.
April 2nd • Madlib & Freddie Gibbs - Pinata
I sometimes get frustrated with special editions of albums from artists that I'm into. I find it annoying when a version of an LP comes out that looks a little better than the one I have. Be it extra tracks, a better cut or different artwork, labels will tend to 'engage' their artists' fans by giving them seemingly endless ways to spend money on them.
Of course I'm all for artists getting paid, but there's a fine line between a rewarding fan experience and feeling like you're being fleeced. The positive side of the endless represses and coloured vinyl options is that if you missed out on something first time around you get a second chance to pick up a good record.
This is the case with Pinata, which came out at a point when I'd disconnected from underground hip hop a little. My way in to this LP was the standout cut Deeper, the instrumental of which came out on a 7" a couple of years back, alongside The Ledgends A Fool For You - the original sample source.Â
I wrote the other day about music with lyrics in different languages and the affect it has on me as a listener. I sort of have a similar experience here - I don't seem to really take in what Freddie Gibbs is rapping about but just let the flow wash over me. Given that the sleeve notes here focus on how much he likes strip clubs, it's possibly for the best that I'm not listening too closely.Â
This records serves as a reminder that hip hop is simple music at its core: a well chosen sample, a dope beat and some rhymes is all you need. Personality helps and Gibbs has that in spades, and with Madlib on the boards you know you're on to a winner.Â
April 2nd 2021 • Mary J Blige - My Life
So let me level with you: this is a classic record no doubt and I really love it. It’s also one that I only recently bought, despite playing a bunch of the tracks on it while DJing over the years. This goes down to my own musical evolution and how stubborn I was about a lot of music in years gone by. When this came out in 1994 I would have been deep in my ‘please tell me what to like NME’ phase. I vividly remember friends of mine singing along to I’m Going Down and mimicking the video whenever they saw a big flight of stairs. That sounds lame reading it back - it was a simpler time!
It all passed me by on a personal level as I just wasn’t hooked into R&B back then. I definitely classed artists like Blackstreet as a ‘guilty pleasure’ which is very silly really - I mean the whole concept of guilty pleasures is dumb - if you like something, you like it, there’s nothing to feel guilty about. Fast forward 5 years when I started DJing properly and buying a lot of hip hop. You’d think at this point I’d be open to artists like Mary J, but no, I was now being hard-headed in a different way. I was very much a ‘real hip hop’ guy, lambasting anything vaguely commercial. I saw Puffy as the enemy of ‘proper’ music. I mean, I still think Puffy is a dick now, but for very different reasons. R&B was a definite no-no in my confined musical world.
So it’s only really in the last 10-15 years that I’ve comfortably owned my tastes and embraced artists like Mary J, Aaliyah, Tweet and the rest. I feel slightly silly for how I was when I was younger, but I’m glad I can unashamedly enjoy what I like now without worrying about whether I ‘should’ like it or not. Anyway, my own personal psychology aside, this is a record that is perfectly suited to a hot bank holiday weekend. If I had a usable garden right now I’d have this on as loud as I could, drinking a cold beer and enjoying the sunshine. Younger me was wrong to not class this as ‘real’ soul music - it doesn’t get realer than this, Mary J baring her soul and sharing her pain over perfect hip hop soul production. If you want to hear a perfect song, stick Be Happy on and turn that volume right up….
Love Piñata! And thanks for the reminder about Badly Drawn Boy, haven't listened to that one in 20 years but will give it a spin tonight, right after your MAJ set.