Two superb covers of the classic Marvin Gaye tune, 'sexual healing'.
First off is the Hot 8 Brass Band from New Orleans laying down some fine horns and soulful singing that gets your hair standing on end.
Download 01_sexual_healing.mp3
Second is Hot Chip's wonderfully electronic take.
Download 09_sexual_healing.mp3
Back in August '05 I posted the original of this tune and I gotta say that Dan Black does a pretty interesting job on covering this classic.
Born in London but based in Paris Dan Black is unsigned and has just released this as a white label.
As said by Mr. Black himself:
"I knew what kind of music I wanted make, but at first I found it hard
to get these conflicting desires to blend well outside of my head. I’d
been making these weird remix/mashups for my occasional Djing, so I
thought, I’ll take the method I’ve been using for that but use it for
song writing instead. The very first thing I tried was HYPNTZ.”
And from the offical blurb:
"Fusing the ubiquitous beat from “Umbrella” with heavily chopped-up
samples from the film soundtrack of John Carpenter’s “Starman”, Dan
audaciously decided to cover one of the holiest scriptures of hip hop:
“Hypnotize”. By bending Biggie’s brutal, braggadocio, mouth-twisting
flow over his own aching, passionate melody, almost miraculously, he
transformed the ultimate rap brag into a deeply heartfelt, bittersweet
epic."
It really is infectious. Lovin' it.
Much thanks to Lifenotes and Erik Rico for providing this excellent version of James Brown's 'Make It Funky' in celebration of the godfather's birthday yesterday.
Erik Rico is an outstanding artist that has spent the last ten years exploring and developing his creativity and talent in music and beyond with his current album, 'Journey Back To Me' featuring his soulful voice and definitive beats. To top all that he is a super nice bloke.
From his label, Lifenotes.
Born into a diverse family of creative artists, Erik started his
professional career 10 years ago as a self contained artist/producer on
Sony's Columbia Records after being discovered by American Idol's Randy
Jackson, then V.P. of Columbia Records. Randy quickly signed Erik to a
multi album solo artist deal. Prior to Jackson's introduction to Erik
via a songwriting demo, he had only briefly been producing, writing and
arranging for independent hip hop and soul acts on the east coast.
However, after only two years of being immersed in the confinements of
the world of corporate music, Erik felt his creativity could be better
expressed elsewhere. He broke his contract with Sony, and headed back
east and then to Europe in search of musical freedom.
It wasn't
long until Erik returned to California in pursuit of his musical career
as an independent producer/artist where he was tapped to do his first
major label production, coupled with various multimedia projects
encompassing network and TV shows, feature films for the Showtime
network, PBS as well as a two year stint as sound designer for famed
photographer David LaChapelle. Erik is currently working on several projects to be released on Lifenotes Music.
buy 'journey back to me': Amazon (US), Clickgroove (UK)
Today is Willie Nelson's 75th birthday. In Texas he is an icon (see Texas Monthly magazine's current issue and hear KUT's hour long inteview, with Nelson biographer, Joe Nick Patoski, along with rare footage here) and he lives just outside Austin on his ranch. Thankfully I got to see him play a few years ago in his hometown and it was a privilege. Throughout his years Willie has had his ups and down with IRS problems, houses destroyed by fire and whatnot but he continues to have an amazing attitude to life and all that surrounds him. He was a founder of Farm Aid (along with Neil Young and John Mellencamp) back in the 80s as he saw that so many family owned farms were going under and started BioWillie to "to help eliminate America's dependence on foreign oil, put the American family farmer back to work and clean up the environment." Way back when he realized that he was a terrible drunk and so Willie became a proponent of weed since then he has appeared on radio shows, benefits to support its benefits and the need for legality which I am sure didn't help his case when his tour bus was famously pulled over and busted with a significant stash of 1 1/2 lbs of weed and mushrooms (at the time he was 73 and the other passengers were 75, 59, 54, and 50-what a trip!).
Apart from all of the great stuff above of course is that Wilie Nelson continues to endure as a master songwriter who has written timeless classics such as 'Crazy' (made famous by Patsy Cline) and was a part of the country supergroup, The Highwaymen, along with Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. The only dubious thing really, in my mind, that he has done has got to be his reggae crossover album, Countryman, which leaves a lot to be desire but we can forgive him for that one faux pas after so many great choices that he has made to this day.Each year he also
throws the July 4th celebration with nothing but a good show so if
you're planning on being in Selma, TX check out this years event
details here).
So Willie, happy birthday sir. Keep on doing what you are doing as it must be right with so many people taking a dance, a smoke or raising a glass in your honour on this day.
Cheers
Download 09_blue_eyes_crying_in_the_rain.mp3
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