Monthly Archives: March 2012

Watch How It Go Down

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There are actually several groups named The Reflections. Just to clarify, this group is the one from Harlem, New York. They released 4 singles on Capitol Records and I believe this is their only LP which is quite rare. I paid $40.00 for a VG+ copy. The album has a heavy disco/up-tempo soul influence and there are only 2 or 3 ballads. The sound is similiar to artist Melba Moore and with good reason. She discovered The Reflections and used them for her backing band.

The track “One into One” was chopped up by DJ Premier for the Termanology cut, “Watch How It Go Down“. This was the single that put him on the map. Check out the original and how Preemo flipped it.

Samples are Dancing

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Isao Tomita was a Japanese experimental musician who played electronic instruments, most notably the Moog. His album “Snowflakes Are Dancing” is actually electronic versions of Debussy songs (Debussy was a classical French composer if you didn’t know).

In 2000 the classic album Reflection Eternal dropped on Rawkus records featuring the rhymes of Talib Kweli and beats by Hi-Tek. Hi-Tek flipped “Passepied” for the track “Too Late“. The other sample in the track (the one that sounds like a muffled vocal) is also from the same Tomita album on the flip-side. For the bonus trivia question, this album also has the sample to the intro of “Pyscho Dwarf” by The Beatnuts. Enjoy.

Duplicate Breaks

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Limousine

Two weeks ago I copped this LP by Limousine hoping it had some dope breaks. It did have a really dope drum break; however, it was one I already owned. No, I didn’t already own the LP and forgot, instead I owned this one. Turns out the song “Raise Your Voice” was re-released as the song “Freedom” by Faith.

I’m not sure on the story here, but Limousine was released in 1972 on GSF Records. The line up is David Barnes, David Bennett, John Cascella, Mark Cawley, and Carl Storie. The cover looks like a typical stoner 70′s rock group and the back has the group standing above a subway entrance. Faith on the other hand seems to be a Christian rock group and was released in 1973 on Brown Bag Records.

A few of the other tracks on the Limousine album appear on Faith but for the most part, they are different. Maybe the group had some type of divine intervention and decided to change ways? In any event, if you are digging for drum breaks don’t be fooled into buying both LP’s. This was the first time I saw Limousine so you’re probably better off copping Faith.

Take the Time (to sample)

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Here is another one from Pete Rock / Smif-N-Wessun’s “Monumental” album. I actually made a beat using the same loop prior to Pete Rock, which is how I found this one. The sample is from the last song on the album, “Take the Time“.

Soul Brother #1 flipped the track “You Needn’t Worry Now” by the group Smoke. Smoke was on Chocolate City records, a subsidiary of Casablanca (Parliament, Kiss, etc.) I don’t have too much info about the group, but this self-titled album was produced by Wayne Henderson. The album is a mix of soul/funk and has lots of horns and strings in the mix.

J Dilla – King

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There are a ton of J Dilla fans out there so I figured I would post something up for them. This most recent post comes to us courtesy of Todd Rundgren. Todd is a highly talented/bugged out dude. Aside from being a talented musician, he also produced several albums. His whole musical style changed when he started doing massive amounts of LSD, marijuana, and even Ritalin.

The album “Initiation” was recorded during his drugged out days and it’s easily evident in the music. Half of the album follows some type of basic song structure, but side 2 is a mix of bugged out synths and chunks of normal music for almost 20 minutes. J Dilla looped the intro to side 2, “Prana” for his cut “King“. Check it out.

Skillz

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After posting up samples for 3 months, I realized I hadn’t posted up anything by one of my main influences, DJ Premier. I decided it was time to showcase some of his greatness.

Premier flipped the cut “Shadows” by the Mysterious Flying Orchestra. Add a chopped up drum loop of Edwin Birdsong‘s “Rapper Dapper Snapper” and you got yourself “Skillz“.

The group itself isn’t a real group – it’s more of a who’s who of dope Jazz Fusion musicians including Lonnie “Liston” Smith. For the bonus diggin’ fact – there is actually another version of “Shadows” from a solo album of one of the members from MFO. However – it doesn’t have the same dope intro.

No Matter What They Sample

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Okay, I’ll admit – Lil’ Kim doesn’t immediately get love among the break/diggin’ community. However, she hates Nicki Minaj so I have to give her some type of credit. Way before Lil’ Kim was all plastic, she was still releasing decent singles to radio. One of her last was “No Matter What They Say“.

The Latin-tinged song lifts the main loop from Salsa artist Cheo Feliciano. For any of the Salsa heads out there, you’ll immediately recognize the name Johnny Pacheco who had a major hand in Cheo’s album. Check the cut “Esto Es El Guaguanco“.

Drum Crazy

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Someting about the cover of Mike Vernon’s “Moment of Madness” told me to pick this up in one of my latest diggin’ trips. I will be honest, this is a terrible album. It’s a mix of blue-eyed soul, rock, blues, and R&B and his singing is border-line un-listenable (sorry if you’re reading this dude).

Lucky for me, I copped the album for loops and it has plenty. There are actualy 3 really dope drum breaks on this LP. If you ever see this in the field, pick it up. I got this copy for $7.00. Take a listen to the track “Stoney Ground”.