Funk Factory : Rien Ne Va Plus

I was first introduced to the Funk Factory via the Beastie Boys' "Car Thief" (from their 1989 opus Paul's Boutique) which was built almost entirely on top of samples from this jazz-funk masterpiece.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" is a slow burn of a funk song, scored with delicious analog synths, bass, chicken scratch guitar and rock drums.  The synthesizers bubble and flutter throughout the song, wrapping it in deep 70's shag, very P-Funk in it's sound.  The song is super-funky, nearly polyrhythmic, in that there are often multiple bass lines running at once.  The ensemble vocals draw a lot from the psychedelic soul bands, like Rotary Connection and the vocal lines are very jazzy, slightly angular, with almost progressive melodies.  But the real clincher is the excellent extended scat sections.  The first, sampled almost in its entirety by the Beasties, is performed by a heavily modified, almost vocodered voice and the second nearly verges on ecstatic screaming.

At first I thought "Rien ne va plus" was just some French thrown in for, you know, pretentious continental flair.  And, I guess it is, but it does have meaning within the song.  "Rien ne va plus" is what they say at a French (or more likely Moroccan) roulette table for "no more bets" (it literally translates as, I think, "Nothing goes anymore.").  The song is all about riding the lucky roulette wheel of love.  Or something.  It all ties together. Trust me.

"Rien Ne Va Plus" can be found on Funk Factory's 1975 self-titled sizzler.  It can also be found on the very nice four disc What It Is! Rhino funk sampler, which is pretty good.

[You can listen to Funk Factory's "Rien Ne Va Plus" by navigating to the post "Song056" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Ben Vaughn : Avanti

Ben Vaughn has been writing and recording since the mid 80's, and is probably best know for his theme to 3rd Rock from the Sun. He's been in a rock band, as well as dabbled in songwriting, soundtracks, production and, of course, his own projects. He is apparently well-known for being able to faithfully recreate the sound of past decades in his recordings.

"Avanti" is a throwback to the go-go easy listening sound that the big bands took up in the early 60's in order to keep themselves "hip" with the burgeoning rock & roll consumers. They never quite got it, but created some beautiful bastardizations while trying. Stay tuned for some of those in the future. Meanwhile, Ben has captured that era in all its groovy glory. There's the swinging backbeat, the trademark Vincent Bell guitar sound, the funky Hammond, and of course the female chorale 'doo-be-doo'ing their way through the wordless vocals. It sounds like something that would be right at home in a 60's soft porn or exploitation flick. In fact, it sounds a bit like something Piero Umiliani might have written (you remember "Mah Nà Mah Nà", right?).

Anyway, "Avanti" and other pseudo-soundtrack gems can be found on Ben's 2005 release, Designs in Music. It's a solid album and a fun listen.

[You can listen to Ben Vaughn's "Avanti" by navigating to the post "Song032" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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Stanley Black : Temptation

In the 50's, after the GI's came home from the Pacific Rim and we adopted Hawaii as our 50th state, there was an explosion of tiki culture in America. Everything remotely related to the Pacific, and by extension anything oriental and even Indian, was considered fascinating. This was true in music as well, as literally thousands of tiki-themed albums were released.

"Temptation" is another of those classic easy listening songs that appears on a bazillion LPs and it's especially popular amongst the tiki crowd, along with "Bali Ha'i", "Moon of Manakoora", "Quiet Village" and others. Stanley Black (real name: Solomon Schwartz) was a British composer and arranger who released a number of easy listening orchestral albums, most of which are top notch. It's hard to go wrong with a Stanley Black album.

Exotic Percussion is a great album, and, as it's name implies, it's chock full of old favorites spiced up with eastern-sounding horns, jungle drums and lots and lots of great percussion. Plus most of the tracks have a female chorus oohing and ahhing along, which just makes the songs doubly awesome. "Temptation" is no exception, kicking off the record with the percussion and horns pounding away, the vocals weaving delicately in and out, and all of the instruments showing off their stereo prowess. They proceed to march through a series of Bolero-like crescendos, ending in a final flourish of horn, drum and voice. Stanley knows how to wring the excitement out of a tune and he definitely pulls out the stops here.

"Temptation" can be found on Stanley's Exotic Percussion album, which you can grab from Amazon off a 2-LP-1-CD deal, or actually get the vinyl. I'd go for the vinyl.

* Art by Shag. He's awesome.

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Marden Hill : Slalom

There is a weird subset of songs that are from Christmas albums but that aren't per se about Christmas or even winter. Sometimes they don't even have jingle bells. Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" is probably the most famous example, inextricably linked to Christmas via A Charlie Brown Christmas for the rest of time.

"Slalom" is from a band called Marden Hill. I couldn't find much out about them, except that they are apparently Él label stalwarts. It sounds like these guys did Shibuya-kei influenced easy listening. As I do research for this essay, I realize, I need to learn way more about these guys and this label.

Regardless, the piece is a bright piece of vocal fluff, along the lines of the Manhattan Transfer, the Swingle Singers or Anita Kerr at her best. The harmonies are sweet and pretty, like a high school crush, and the song does somehow invoke a wintery feel. There are jingle bells in the first few seconds, and an occasional high piano trill to help you imagine falling snow, so it'd probably make a good soundtrack for a romantic evening sleigh ride.

The piece can be found on the Él Records winter compilation, Él Christmas: The World in Winter. You can grab it from Amazon, or directly from the label (scroll down), although I think the "9.95" might be pounds, not dollars.

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Jimmy Smith : I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe

"Well, I got ...
More bounce to the fuckin' bump
And if you want to know why,
It's 'cause I'm motherfuckin' truckin' ..."

I gotta admit, what first excited me about this tune was the opening bars which are sampled pretty plainly by the Beastie Boys on "Professor Booty" from their Check Your Head album. Very few things get me more excited (musically) than catching a sample reference I've never heard before, even one so gratuitous. After that second tom fill, my brain immediately jumps to the Beastie's ingenious lyrics.

From there though, the song opens up into those gorgeous ringing female vocals. With only a hint of lyrics around the the chorus, they carry that sparkly 70's vibe that makes you feel like you've just been swept aboard the Mothership on its way to Studio 54 for some seriously laid back funking. You can just imagine the afro-sporting, rhinestone-jumpsuit-clad backup singers "oooh-ing" and "ahhh-ing" their way through the sessions with the sweeping hand gestures and slow camera pans.

You know what else those vocals remind me of? That Eastern Airlines ride at Disney World back in the 70's, where they showed movies of folks singing and celebrating all around the world over a super-groovy soundtrack. There's something about some of the music from that era that for some reason really brings me back to that ride, ostensibly one of the more boring rides for kids, but I just lo-o-o-oved it. Now we know why.

The track itself is a relaxed, sexy groove, and who would expect anything less from a Barry White cover? The song really belongs to the vocals and the rhythm section, who lay down a nice sustained rolling funk shuffle throughout. Jimmy Smith jazzes around the organ pretty well, though he's buried down in the mix a bit, so you have to really listen carefully to catch his far-out solos.

This tune was featured as a rip from a 45 back in November 2009 at the always great Funky16corners blog, in case you missed it. It's also available on Jimmy Smith's 1974 LP, Black Smith.

[You can listen to Jimmy Smith's "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Babe" by navigating to the post "Song008" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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