the love unlimited sound system

52nd Street formed in Manchester in 1980. Throughout the 1980s they would enjoy success not only in the UK, but also on the Billboard charts stateside. Local funk DJ Mike Shaft became their mentor and would play demos on his Piccadilly Radio shows. After a numbe of studio sessions the group found themselves without a manager.

Derrick Johnson of the group approached ex-DJ Rob Gretton, co-owner of Factory Records, and Joy Division’s manager. (The connection came via Johnson’s brother Donald, the drummer for Factory act A Certain Ratio.) Gretton went to see the band play at jazz venue The Band on the Wall in Manchester. Soon after, Gretton and his reluctant partner Tony Wilson agreed to take a chance and add the band to the Factory Records roster.

52nd Street’s first release on Factory was in 1982 was “Look into My Eyes”, backed with the disco dynamite of “Express”, produced by Donald Johnson it was named as single of the week in the NME.

Dedicated with love from all @ the love unlimited to Tony Wilson who sadly passed away in August this year.

 

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Earth, Wind & Fire formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 and by Maurice White. No stranger to being remixed they featured on the soul source release dj remix project, a release that featured the likes of the mastrs at work, phil asher and the mighty re-working of “fantasy” by blaze.

Weighing in at a hefty 10 minutes+ we have the horn-heavy penultimate track in the recent series of hush-hush re-edits.

A love unlimited exclusive…enjoy

 

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Staying with the theme of non-disco artists delivering disco goodness here we have the excellent “I’ll Tell You” by Sergio Mendes.

A big spin on the disco & early house scene in Chicago & on heavy rotation with Love Unlimited this week.

 

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Bobby Byrd sadly passed away yesterday, 12th September 2007. He is well known for his long standing relationship with the Godfather Mr. James Brown. Bobby actually discovered James.

His most famous solo outing was “I know you got soul” (1971) a track sampled by Eric B & Rakim, Public Enemy, LL (Ladies Love) Cool J, Tribe Called Quest & Ice Cube and many, many more.

RIP

 

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3 of a Kind Part III

Released in 1974 on the love unlimited “In Heat” LP here is the original lick in all it’s glory, a longtime personal fave, always in the box & massive at loveunlimited HQ.

We really like all 3 versions, hence the post, cover versions are most welcome, but in this case, for us it’s all about the original.

 

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3 of a Kind Part II

More of the same, Dionne added the ‘E’ to her surname in 1975 on the advice of her numerologist. In the same year she released this version a BIG spin for Gilles Peterson.

Released in the UK on 45.

 

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3 of a Kind Part I

We absolutely love Chaka & here she is again, with the killer “move me no mountain” taken from her “Naughty LP” (1980).

 

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Think of Mtume (pronounced Em-Too-May) & usually the first track that springs to mind is the slick “juicy”(1983) sampled so much in hip-hop by so many performers.

From the band Reggie Lucas and James Mtume provided their magic touch to Stephanie Mills including the Grammy winning single “Never Knew Love Like This Before” (1979). Reggie Lucas also produced the majority of Madonna’s first album.

“So you wanna be a star”, is in the same vein as the massive “Bourgie Bourgie” penned by Ashford & Simpson and subsequently released by Gladys Knight & John Davis.

From the start this tracks a winner, it just builds-&-builds…it’s got the strings, deep-deep lyrics, spacey keys & killler horns. Disco Heaven.

Enjoy

 

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As any crate digging vinyl junkie knows sometimes you have to take a few risks or go out of your way to find those much needed original 12″ & 7″ inch fixes.

Now Frank Conakry goes further than most in his pursuit of african funk rarities check out http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/ to find out about his adventures. We doff our caps for your dedication to the cause of crate digging.

music blog love from all at the love unlimited…

 

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From Atlanta Brick scored a big hit with this funky little number “dazz” released in 1976, a real fusion of funk, disco & jazz.

Large elements were sampled by hip-house hero Doug Lazy on the brilliant “lets go to work” from his 1990 LP “doug lazy gettin’ crazy”

Jazz, Dazz, Disco Jazz…

 

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