101 Strings have hundreds of albums. Most of them are boring classical music (and Opera Without Words is no exception. You’ll most likely find this album and it’s 101 Strings family (or Living Strings cousins) in dollar bins all over the US. However, this album does have a silver lining which is the song “Celeste Aida“. Listen long enough and you’ll actually find the sample to Killarmy’s “Clash of the Titans“. I have to give credit to 4th Disciple, as I would have probably skipped over the sample or not been able to make as hot a beat as he did out of it.
Love Limited Orchestra
When sound library samples were all the rage, I went digging for them as well. The price of DeWolfe’s and KPM’s were at an all time high and I didn’t have the cash for them. So I went the cheap route and looked for some lesser known libraries. I came across an SPM (no relation to KPM) – Showcase Production Music. I’ve never seen another one of these so not sure how rare they are.
Anyways, the LP is mediocre at best, but to my surprise there is a track called “Soft Rock Theme” which is actually a cover of Love Unlimited Orchestra’s (Barry White) “Rhapsody in White” (sampled for Prodigy’s “Cant’ Complain”). I guess if you couldn’t afford Barry White, you could use this version instead.
More Funky Christian Breaks
Another funky drum break by some great church-going musicians. The Up With People are a group of like 50 musicians from all over the world (as the back sleeve states). The overall album is pretty funky but “Man’s Gotta Go Somewhere” is the standout track with a dope drum break in the intro. Not sure if this is a true “Gospel” or general “Christian” album, as it’s on Pace records (division of Buddah). But hillarious songs like “What Color Is God’s Skin?” make me think so.
Soundcloud Page is up!
For anyone who is down with soundcloud, go check out official page of Ill Tal. Hear tracks I produced, remixes, and some instrumentals.
Below Average White Band
Who wouldn’t want to hear their favorite song performed by a low budget, studio backing band? Apparently, a lot of people during the 70′s. Due to licensing costs it was cheaper to pay a band to re-record songs and create a “greatest hits” compilation rather than pay publishing and mechanical royalties for the originals. I wonder how many people were duped into thinking these compilations were the original recordings only to find out they were cheap imitations.
Lucky for us, this compilation featured one of the most famous breaks of all, Average White Band‘s “School Boy Crush“. Unfortunately, this version doesn’t have the guitar hard-panned so you can’t get just the drum break. However, it’s a still a pretty funky rendition and to my knowledge, this version is pretty rare.
There is no info on the album as far as the band members. Just a list of C.B. slang for truck drivers (?!). The album does feature some other dope covers including “Love to Love You“, “Fly, Robin, Fly” and “Love Roller Coaster“.
Super Dudes Killed Freddie….
Everyone familiar with digging in the crates knows the classic Blaxploitation soundtracks like Shaft and Superfly. The songs from these albums ended up becoming major hits which spawned some pretty funky cover versions. The most known being “Bumpy’s Lament” by Soul Mann and the Brothers made famous by Dr. Dre.
I came across an album by the Super Dudes which is basically a cover album of some of the best Blaxploitation tracks. Here you’ll find a pretty mediocre version Curtis Mayfield’s “Freddie’s Dead“. The backing band is lo-fi, the vocals are average, some of the timing is off and a lot of the lyrics are just straight up wrong. BUT, the plus side here is this is actually the version Pete Rock sampled for an interlude on Smif-N-Wessun’s “Monumental“. Enjoy!