OUT IN THE WINE BAR

East End wine bar classic, I think what made this popular was his name as much as the track, we all loved using the word "ponse" strange....

A quality piece of 80's funk, 1983 to be precise, he did release a couple of other tracks but none up to the standard of this.

Serge Ponsar - Out In The Night

Casanova Your Playing Days Are Over

Well here it is, bout' time, finally, took your time, better late than never.

Yes (Pete) this is my first post (with track attached) for 2008, and what a little cracker, if I do say so myself, this did get the re-edit treatment last year but to be honest it didn't cut it.
In all it's original glory.....
For your listening pleasure.

Casanova - Coffee

Thumbs up for these fresh gigs

Fark... Funkinc kicked on Saturday night and sucked in if you missed it. I will take this opportunity to make a big shout out to Frenzie & Simon Caldwell for their superb services. Robin & I played between the lads and then I bought the bacon on home with the last shift til 5am.
I have a couple of gigs to endorse coming up over the next few weeks: Niche productions presents
Freddie Cruger aka Red Astaire@ Ruby Rabbit Friday 8th Feb,
With Mark Walton & a great bunch of locals. I will be on the top floor VIP bar, (DE NOM) banging out some choice soul funk cuts and bent boogie tunes for the champagne ladies & cashed up gents.



The second gig I give the good old double thumbs for is the Turntables on the Harbour gig. Yeah, you got it! Nickodemus from Turntables on the Hudson in New York is being returned to Sydney for another night of eclectic jazz beats and dance floor breaks to name but a few of the genres you may hear at this event. I saw him last time he was in Sydney and he ripped that shit up dude. He's a fav of my good mate Tom Thump in San Fran and they regularly cross the states to play at one another's gigs. If I hadn't been playing with J Boogie the same night in SF, I would have caught him there as well.
Sat 23rd Feb-Boat Party. Click on fler for more details
Those crazy Germans the Mo Horizons will also be on the bill. Sadly enough, we SoulShakers are not on the bill but do not let this discourage you from the best gig this town will have that weekend.

Listen to Nickodemus-Give The Drummer Some (Fort Knox 5 edit)

Men are from Mars... maybe

Apparently Men are from Mars & Women are from Venus. This would probably explain why a couple of these lovely ladies on the album cover look suspiciously like men after a closer look at the picture. I guess its a precursor for any gezza who wants to hang with the Venus gang. The track Love to fly' is an floating cosmic funk jam structured on the o'jays 'for the love of money'. I think they were a bunch of frenchies and this may explain the lady dresses. This cut "Love to Fly" has recently been bootlegged and can be picked up on Clone Records out of Denmark. I may drop this early on Sat night as an early floor wrmer or perhaps as a late night sleazy wrap up...

Venus Gang - Love to Fly

DJ Frenzie's Tribute to Mel Cheren

“This was a really hard mix to put together. The reason being that Mel Cheren's back cataloge is just so huge, and I really wanted to cover the various styles represented by the 3 labels that he worked with.

Mel Cheren was known as the godfather of disco, and with good cause. Details of his involvement with the Paradise Garage, his pioneering DJ record pool, his ground breaking DJ Promo 12inches, and his various charity work for Aids victims can be found else where on the internet.
With this mix I tried to cover his time at Wand, Scepter, and of course Westend (whose tunes take up the majority of this mix).
There was still so much ground left to cover, such as the early hip hop work that Spyder D and DJ Divine produced, which to this day I still can't find - although I do give B Beat Classic a spin. (Any sellers get in touch!)
Mel continued releasing records through West End right up to present day, and there is a whole catalog of recent music that didn't make it into this mix, apart from the beautiful Leela James tune, which I hope may give a sense of what the label is producing in recent times.
I also made a conscious decision to include one side of the classic mastermix medley produced by Tony Humphries in 1982 - Simply because it is just so awesome, and really flies through some of the classics from West End that I didn't have time to play in their entirety.
So here it is - My take on one of the legends of dance music.
RIP Mel..”
Frenzie

Listen to: Frenzie's Tribute Mix to Mel Cheren

General Crook - Fever In The Funkhouse (Wand) 1974
Taana Gardner - Heartbeat (West End) 1981
Sweet G - A Heartbeat Rap (West End) 1981
BT Express - If It Don't Turn You On (Scepter) 1974
Sweet Music - I Get Lifted (Wand) 1976
Mahogany - Ride On The Rhythm [Dub] (West End) 1982
Barbara Mason - Another Man (West End) 1983
Brenda Taylor - You Can't Have Your Cake And Eat It Too (West End) 1982
Sesso Matto - Sessomatto [Jim Stuard Disco Mix] (West End) 1976
B+ - B Beat Classic (West End) 1983
Karen Young - Hot Shot (West End) 1978
Leela James - Good Time [Jihad Muhammad & Blaze Vocal] (West End) 2006
Shirley Lites - Heat You Up (West End) 1983
Forrrce - keep on dancin (West End) 1982
Tony Humphries - Master Mix Medley (West End) 1982
Bombers - Everybody Get Dancin (West End) 1978
LTG Exchange - Corazon (Scepter) 1974
Don Downing - Dream World (Scepter) 1974

Are You Lonely

Here's a fav track of mine however someone out there may shed a little more light on the artist for me tho. All I know is that it was released in 1983 on Street level records along with the rest of the production credit notes from the 12". It is relatively easy to find on a couple of compilations from the past few years and Yam Who did a re edit in 2004. Dj U-Tern from Canada and Beat street records used the opening break for his monumental mixed cd Body Work. I have it on my list of tracks to re edit or sample for that production work I may never actually get around to doing one day...
The Original B side is a wicked instrumental, if ya want a copy there is one on ebay at the moment with a starting bid of $100 USD
BTW 4 days later, it sold for $402 USD

Hipnotic - Are You Lonely

FUNKinc Australia Day

We have returned for 2008 with a monster line up. Simon Caldwell & Frenzie are joining Mr Glass & Robin Knight for a night of Savage Soul, Deep Disco & Bent Boogie to help us celebrate the birth of this great nation.
I've dropped a nice little party starter for you to sample. The band needs no introduction as you should all know them and this is one of their bigger dance floor tracks. Click below and get into a a touch of Crown Heights Affair with Say a Little Prayer for two. Its got the lot! A classic driving disco funk number with all the ingredients for a jumping dance floor. I reckon I'll drop this and a bunch more similar sounds next weekend.
I'll be back later today to tell you of my 2 weeks adventure up and down the coast, I found a couple of gems I've been after for sometime and will share the experience with you.

Listen to: Crown Heights Affair-Say a little prayer for two

Pulling Out The Finger....

Wishing you all the best for the New Year (better late than never), we've all been a bit slow on the update of late, but it's all going to change this week, I promise.

Tunes are being uploaded as we type....

Soon Come.

When Will It End?

After another long tiring week, of both good and bad gigs, fun and boring Xmas parties, along with excessive amounts of festive top shelf liquor I've finally got enough time and focus to hit up the blog once more..
Most people who know me well know how much I really dislike this time of year. It's not that I just found out the truth about Santa it's more so the massive amount of muppets who come out and get embarrassingly drunk and hassle us djs to play the most horrible music which they've heard hundreds of times before. Obviously it is part of the job to deal with but I'm getting too old for this I tell ya!! Here's an aptly titled track called "When Will It End" from 3 soul sisters who go by the name of Honey Cone. Nice serving of space funk with a good helping of soul. Enjoy

SoulShaker Summer Mix

After becoming a little bit of a Face Book convert over the past month or so I found this cracking group called "70's & 80's Soul, Funk, Disco, Rare Groove & Boogie - We Love it" it's a blinder, loads of cool stuff, photos, video's, tracks to download and mixes. Todays contribution is a mix I did for a post on the group it's a bit of stuff that already features here on the blog, I've put it all together into a mix.
Hope you feel the love....


Raw Soul Express - The Way We Live
Touch Of Class - I Love You Pretty Baby
Al Johnson - Second Wind
Keith Barrow - The Twinkle
Ronnie McNair - Saggitarian Affair
Leroy Hutson - The Ghetto
Jean Carne - Free Love
Caprice - 100 %
Sandra Feva - Just To Be Close
Sebastian Williams - Get Your Point Over
94 East Feat. Prince - If You See Me
Chapter 8 - How Can I Get Next To You
Patterson Twins - I Need Your Love
General Johnson - Don't Walk Away

Regal @ The Next Funkinc

Here's a little sample from Regal's recent album, Loop Dreams. After a long hiatus, while remixing some local Aussie acts & finding his new sound, REGAL has finally returned to the melting pot, with his debut solo album. Loop Dreams is a little gem from the one-time original founding member of both THE WISEGUYS (Wall Of Sound) & BRONX DOGS (Heavenly/Marble Bar) two of the UK's most revered underground acts of the 90's. This Album is a nice blend of Downbeat, Hip hop & Breaks with heavy soul & Funk influences.
The track I have chosen to give you a taste of is The Mack; a down right funky breaks track with sweet arse vox samples, ladies and gentlemen, this is the moment we all been waiting for.....
You can do three things from here. 1) Come see Regal playing Original Funk & Soul @ the next Funkinc Sat 22nd Dec. 2) Go to Basment Digs to buy & download his entire Album. 3) go to Regals Myspace to sample somemo' of his tasty treats.

Regal - The Mack

Ghetto Boy

This album was originally released in May 2005 and i was lucky enough to be given a new vinyl copy a few weeks ago by the boys at R & S in Melbourne (on clear vinyl no less). The first track I have chosen for the blog is from the remix album from Atlantic records "ATLANTIQUITY" its a remix of one of my favorite Donny Hathaway tracks "Little Ghetto Boy" first released by Donny on ATCO as a single in 1972 and here remixed by Freddie Luster specially for this album, it runs just over 5 mins 30 and should be played from start to finish, feel free to kick your slippers off move the coffee table out of the way and enjoy!

Little Ghetto Boy -- Donny Hathaway (Freddy L Remix)

NEW YORK PORT AUTHORITY

Here's a driving little funk track titled "I Got It" from the New York Port Authority. The band haled from Amityville, Long Island New York, I guess that reveals the reason behind their name. They recorded on the HDH Invictus label. This was cut in 1977, hence the heavy laden disco keys laid over the stabbing funk horns and clav that is not indicative of too much of the HDH production. I am guessing that this was one of the last releases to come out of the creative stable.
Oh yeah, listen out for the moans of a somewhat satisfied lady...

NEW YORK PORT AUTHORITY - I Got It (pt 1)

Apologies & Welcome

Nice one Jeff, farking crackin to have you on board and we look forward to many nuggets from you!

I’m sorry about my recent absence to the blog. Between dj’n a whole stack of gigs with the party season, going to Melbourne, having a touch of bronchitis and my internet speed shitting itself... well you know where this is going. Back on track now and I will post you some bang on tunes, old and new that I’ve been givin a good seeing too on the decks lately. For now it’s just hello and goodbye until sometime over the weekend.

Big thanks to all who joined the dance floor last weekend and I am eagerly anticipating your return for the Yuletide Boogie on the 22nd

Just Be Thankful

First of all, a big thanks to Robin and Pete for not only letting me be involved here on the blog but also for constantly pushing the quality soulful sounds throughout this hometown of ours and of course, now in the land of blogs..
For my first post I'm bringing a nice soul/reggae crossover version of a tune originally written & performed by William DeVaughn and made extremely famous by Massive attack, who covered it on their incredible album "Blue Lines". This track has been featured on a few comps but one definitely worth picking up is "Soul Sides Vol. 2 - The Covers" from Dusty Groove. Check it..

Donovan Carless - Be Thankful For What You've Got