it was so nice outside today, i went and bought some records! here's the haul:

1 - disco circus - no, not the martin circus lp (if there is one). this is on lollipop records and has a bunch of european names on it. keith fosey is drumming on this. i picked it bc it had 'inna gaada da vida', 'soul sister', 'get up and dance', and 'the mexican' on the tracklisting. the iron butterfly track is too fast for my taste (140bpm, there are a few perc bboy breaks in there), as is the next track 'dig it'. 'soul sister' is a good track though, clocking in around 115bpm. second side starts w/ 'over and over' which opens up almost exactly like that old edit of 'i feel love'. its soon clear that its original disco and ok. 'get up and dance' is a moog-led jam thats alright. a couple of times, it breaks down with eight bars of flute followed by a nice synth lead. finally, 'the mexican' stays pretty true to the babe ruth version (staying at that tempo, too), with a synth lead instead of guitar. its pretty funky in places, actually, esp. the break. did i mention this is a promo copy?

2 - herbie mann - push push - yes, the sexiest herbie mann cover of all. the cast includes duane allman, cornell dupree, david spinoza, chuck rainey, bernard purdie, ralph mcdonald, duck dunn, al jackson jr, and richard tee. these are funky flute-driven jams, just like you'd expect. 'push push' is just a jam, while 'what's going on' mellows out w/ tee's organ swells adding color. 'spirit in the dark', an aretha franklin tune, has a great half-time groove. the flipside starts w/ a beautiful intro of flute + piano, a mann original. the album is good, you should buy it, enough said. this is a promo copy from embryo because i rock it like that.

3 - kaygees - find a friend - i think ive mentioned this before, but i'm trying to get every track that was featured on ub&b. so it was excellent that i found a copy of this album. the cut i'm after is 'i believe in music'. ronald bell from kool and the gang wrote or co-wrote nearly every track on this album, which was recorded in de-lite studios and released on gang records. some of this is pedestrian disco, but the aforementioned track is incredibly fresh. the rest is downhill from there. 'together' is decent enough. there's a not particularly great break in 'inspiration', 'mr. nothing' has a long hihat-only section, and there's an ok drum break in 's.t.p.' (as well as a marimba break!). this album shows a heavy kool and the gang influence, so be prepared for that if you're not a fan. surprise, this was a 'dj-only' copy!

4 - gary burton - good vibes - from 1970, the berklee president comes through w/ eric gale, richard tee, steve swallow, chuck rainey, and bernard purdie to put it down. vibrafinger has a distorted vibe thing, similar to stark reality in tone if not in composition. it's got a couple parts where everyone lays out and the drums and bass groove together. 'las vegas tango' is a chilled, smoky version of a gil evans tune, and the source for cypress hill's 'illusions'. the track is dope. 'boston marathon' is a cute little shuffle that turns into a funk getdown. pain in my heart is a gospelly track. 'leroy the magician' starts w/ a quick break before getting down to the nitty gritty. finally, we close out with a cover of 'i've never loved a man (the way i love you)' that's pretty good, with the guitar taking the lead for most of the song. i definitely slept on this album for too long.

5 - ramsey lewis - maiden voyage - i'm a big ramsey lewis fan, even if that makes me a lil' dude. funky serenity, sun goddess, these are timeless albums. so why didn't i have this one? 'maiden voyage' is good and 'mighty quinn' has some drums. his take on 'lady madonna' is not that stellar, even if he's playing either a harpsichord or a harpsisynth. and then the next track comes on and i'm shopping. trust me on this. 'ode' is better. 'les fleur' starts the second side, and it's a nice, slightly darker tune that a bunch of people have used. the rest of the album is a couple of funky piano tracks, 'afro-boogaloo twist' being especially effective, meditative jazz, and 'eternal journey', a latin-sounding track that charles stepney drapes crazy strings onto. it's got a nice bass intro, too. this album isn't as good as his aforementioned classics after a first listen, but its still good stuff.

6 - va - cadet-cadet/concept sampler january 1969 - here's something interesting, featuring ray bryant, the dells, lou donaldson, yusef lateef, ramsey lewis, jack mcduff, and soulful strings, woody herman, and howlin' wolf. lou opens things up w/ a standard jazz track. the yusef lateef track is from a live date, entitled 'let every soul say amen', and is drony and unresolved. brother jack opens things up w/ 'black is', with some heavy bohannon-esque drums underneath the horns and organ. ray bryant does a very (at first) somber 'little green apples' that eventually starts to groove. woody herman tells us to 'hush', a cover of the pop tune by that name (i think, it's definitely a cover). soul strings plays 'listen here', with a nice intro that stays in the pocket. ramsey lewis plays 'medley of three tunes' and its wild electronic intro into a souljazz track that fades into more electronic sounds that serves as an 'intro' of sorts to a version of mother natures son that becomes theramin sounds that introduce his version of cry baby cry what the hell is this? i am confused. the dells provide 'hallelujah baby' and 'agatha van thurgood', a pair of standard vocal soul tracks with big sweeping string sections. howlin wolf gives us open drum intros and hellafried soul on 'spoonful' and 'red rooster'. this must have been a distributor-only thing, as the track listing (found only on the label) only has the catalog numbers for the lps. this pressing is loud as fuck, too.

7 - bodacious df - bodacious df - this is pretty much rock with a drummer who listened to tower of power occasionally. its really not that good, i'm telling you. but the track good folks does have a nice long break, and the entire song grooves, _and_ theres drums later on, too. this song is pretty hot, i'm telling you. 'roberta' could almost work. 'twixt two worlds' has a nice funky part near the end. i'm not sure why i picked this up, other than the wierd name, but 'good folks' made it worth it. should i know who marty balin is? he's the lead singer here.