Ben Tunnicliffe

Hidden Gems From Overflow Crates -------- Today I popped in to my local to try and cop the bargain copy of Steely Dan’s ‘Aja’ that they had. I know the album inside-out and put off buying it for that exact reason but given Becker’s passing I felt like I wanted to be able to revisit it this evening and reminisce about just how many of us have listened to it in awe of the writing, musicianship and production.

Understandably, their copy had already been snapped up so I chose to make the most of my rapport with my shop and was allowed to make my way through yet another unsorted overflow box of 7″s.

Time consuming, dusty and often frustrating but anyone who’s been buying for a while knows that it’s never just duplicates or unsellables in these ‘overflow’ crates. It’s worth the effort.

I left with 11 x 7″ records for £10 and found some absolute gems that you can listen to right here.

Some classics, some not. Here’s my gut reaction to the ones I left the shop with in 5 words or less:

The Jones Girls - You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else - Sassy. Them reverse claps though.

McFadden & Whitehead - Ain’t No Topping Us Now - Stone-cold, feel-good motivational classic

Gregg Diamond - Star Cruiser - Pumpy space disco party

Rinder & Lewis - Envy/Lust - Far out, late night

Yarbrough & Peoples - Don’t Stop The Music - Double Sider, phat ass.

Brecker Brothers - East River - Air fist, cocksure, almost brash.

Roy Ayers - Love Will Bring Us Back Together/Leo - Often copied, never equalled

B.T. Express - Do It (’Til You’re Satisfied) - Wah guitar, sexy confident

Freda Payne - Band of Gold - Stunning, non-motown raw soul

Love Unlimited Orchestra - I Love You so, Never Gonna Let You Go - Deep cut. Those drums

Cozy Powell - Dance With The Devil - Rawcus. Does Hendrix know?

Today’s Inspiration Is Coming In Via: Revisiting Dubstep --------- A love for electronic music was one of the key things that glued my closest friends and I together when we were in college. I was 16 at the time and the majority of our tastes collectively fell into the British ‘Big Beat’ sounds of the Prodigy etc, Jump Up D’n’B and the more European side of Electro that was pretty popular at the time. I distinctly remember being shown acts like Caspa and Rusko during that time and being that I had a natural leaning toward the more IDM side of D’n’B the sounds I was hearing in my friend’s car didn’t really do it for me. It’s only retrospectively and out of sheer curiosity that I’ve learnt that the vein of dubstep I was being shown was already by that time quite far removed from the dark and understated roots of the music. While my relationship with dubstep on the whole still has a long way to go, I am glad to have found a few dozen tracks from the music’s earlier days that really do it for me.

It’s Sunday and I felt like taking a break from my own record collection and have found in this documentary some great music, great insider info and also a healthy dose of inspiration on a day when I’ve been pretty lacklustre. Dubstep came to its own out of bold experimentation at a time when London’s Garage scene had petered out to all but extinction and serves as a great example of what can be achieved when nothing’s really kicking off around you.

A real positive from a negative!