today's chillout music (411)

norman connors / saturday night special

Connors' strong Saturday Night Special is most notable for "Valentine Love," a Top Ten black singles hit. The romantic ballad, a duet between Michael Henderson and Jean Carn, arrived in time for February 14 and also peaked on the Top 100 of the pop chart. One can't help but feel that the whole LP is truly Carn's show, as she contributes her rich voice to a number of stylistically varied numbers. Whether belting out in front of industrial-strength funk fusion ("Saturday Night Special"; watch out for Reggie Lucas' needling guitar solo here), sliding through breezy jazz (a rendition of Jobim's "Dindi"), or slipping into some ethereal colorings (a take on Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage"), Carn proves herself to be an extremely versatile vocalist, equally adept with each approach. "Skin Diver," penned by Harry "We Live in Brooklyn, Baby" Whitaker and Dwight Carson, is the best of the lot -- a slowly simmering number that features Carn at her soaring best. Hancock contributes piano to "Kwasi," a painfully brief fusion cut that begins with a two-minute Connors drum solo and ends after another two minutes, just when it begins to really cook.

today's chillout music (410)

steel an' skin / reggae is here once again (12inch)

From the Honest Jon's 'hood -- Ladbroke Grove, late 1970s -- stomping disco, dubwise reggae and regal steel-band. Three-track EP, released in conjunction with EM Records from Japan, who issued the recent Reggae Is Here Once Again.

today's chillout music (409)

jayson lindh / second carneval

today's chillout music (408)

norman connors / dark of light

This is in the stone groove of earlier Connors delights -- New York club music, the nexus where disco and jazz collided and gave birth to a brassy sort of funk. Players abound here: Herbie Hancock, Cecil McBee, Gary Bartz, and Stanley Clarke, to name but a few. Soon after this, Connors had some hits and started making records he figured his "public" wanted to hear.

today's chillout music (407)

david byrne / the catherine wheel

The Catherine Wheel is David Byrne's musical score commissioned by Twyla Tharp for her dance project. The Catherine Wheel premiered September 22, 1981, at the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.The tracks "Big Blue Plymouth", "My Big Hands", "Big Business", and "What a Day That Was", were performed live by Talking Heads in 1982 and 1983; the latter two appear in their Stop Making Sense film, and "What a Day That Was" appears on the album.

today's chillout music (406)

tommy stewart

today's chillout music (405)

lesette wilson / now that i've your attention

today's chillout music (404)

herb ohta / songs for anna

today's chillout music (403)

jon hassell-brian eno / fourth world vol.1 possible musics

Largely thought of merely as a mostly stillborn offshoot of Brian Eno's larger ambient music series, the Fourth World series of albums, in collaboration with trumpeter Jon Hassell, is actually an entirely separate beast. Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics starts off from the same basic idea as Hassell's previous solo albums, like Earthquake Island and Vernal Equinox: a blend of avant-garde composition, jazz soloing, and African and Middle Eastern rhythmic forms. This album adds only Eno's characteristic production touches, like the reversed echo that adds a ghostly, unreal edge to Hassell's trumpet solos on the side-long "Charm (Over Burundi Cloud)." The rest of the album, including the African hand drummers on the hypnotic "Delta Rain Dream" and the swirling, almost speech-like solos of "Griot," is pure Hassell. Although this album was never a chart hit and has become surprisingly underappreciated over the years, its influence on what has since become known as tribal techno is incalculable, as has its influence on those art rockers who have picked up a world music vibe. Peter Gabriel in particular owes a fair chunk of his royalty checks from Security onward to Jon Hassell.

today's chillout music (402)

jimmy smith / sit on it!

today's chillout music (401)

tears for fears / songs from the big chair

If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks. The album could almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair. And commercially successful it was, containing no less than three huge commercial radio hits, including the dramatic and insistent march, "Shout" and the shimmering, cascading "Head Over Heels," which, tellingly, is actually part of a song suite on the album. Orzabal and Smith's penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate, and each song has the same driven intent and the same glistening remoteness. It is not only a commercial triumph, it is an artistic tour de force. And in the loping, percolating "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. Songs from the Big Chair is one of the finest statements of the decade.

today's chillout music (401)

passport / cross.collateral

You can get quite an argument going about what Passport really is -- rock fans hear a very accessible jazz outfit, and jazz fans hear a progressive rock band with real chops. Cross-Collateral is the album that shows how well this jazz band can rock and how well this rock band can play jazz. The title cut is 13 minutes and 38 seconds of progressive rock suite, with elements of funk and jazz fitting into a seamless whole. Klaus Doldinger's sax goes through its whole range of sounds, from growls and grunts to soaring melody lines. Elsewhere on the album are delightfully ethereal pieces that are closer to straightforward jazz, such as the meditative "Damals." "Will-of-the-Wisp," aptly named for the way that the simple theme appears and reappears, is a concert favorite for this band and reappears on their live albums. Cross-Collateral was an international success and brought this band to greater prominence in the U.S.A., and it's easy to see why. To put it simply, everything fits together perfectly. NOTE: Fans of album cover art cherish the LP version of this release, which has an eye-catching cover credited only to Wandrey's Studio.

today's chillout music (400)

gene dunlop / it's just the way i feel

today's chillout music (399)

eddie drennon & b.b.s.unlimited / collage 

today's chillout music (398)

herbie hancock / magic windows

Magic Windows is the thirty-second album by jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, released on September 29, 1981 on Columbia. Personnel involved in this album, besides Herbie himself, include among others: Wah-Wah Watson, Ray Parker Jr., Sylvester, Paulinho da Costa, Adrian Belew and Sheila Escovedo.

today's chillout music (397)

bob marley & the wailers / buffalo solier (12 dub version)

today's chillout music (396)

sly & robbie / a dub experience

today's chillout music (395)

the mickey dread show / african anthem dub wise

today's chillout music (394)

rare gems odyssey

today's chillout music (393)

cm load

today's chillout music (392)

hi tension / there's a reason (12inch)

today's chillout music (391)

the jones girls / get as much love as you can

today's chillout music (390)

kathryn moss / music in my heart

today's chillout music (389)

samuel jonathan johnson / my music

Samuel Jonathan Johnson's lone album My Music is the epitome of a cult classic: a record that didn't do much upon its release in 1978 but steadily found an audience, one large enough that it eventually worked its way into the culture, its presence known through recurring samples on songs by Jadakiss, Q-Tip, and others. If My Music offered nothing more than sample source material, it'd be little more than a curio, but it's a unique record in its own right, falling halfway between the romantic disco opuses of Barry White and the seductive smooth jazz of Donald Byrd and Roy Ayers. Johnson does indulge in a bit of exuberance -- "Sweet Love" bubbles over with joy and "It Ain't Easy" is nearly as ebullient, while "You" bounces to a determined disco thump -- but the overall tone of the LP is one of love, not seduction. Johnson has love for his mother, his family, his love, and music, and that sincere, earnest emotion gives this resonance while Johnson's lush but not extravagant production gives it an enveloping warmth that doesn't fade.

today's chillout music (388)

jazzanack / a3

today's chillout music (387)

debra laws / very special

Very Special was the 1981 debut album for Debra Laws which sold over 385,000 copies worldwide.The album was produced by her brothers Hubert and Ronnie Laws, both of whom were players on the jazz scene in the 80s through their associations with Earth Wind & Fire.Following the success of the lead single from the album, which received widespread radio airplay, Debra Laws toured around the US and abroad for the following nine years after the album’s release.As a result of the extensive touring, Debra Laws got the opportunity to collaborate with such Motown and funk legends as The Commodores, Kool and the Gang and Shabba Ranks.

today's chillout music (386)

the mystic moods / awakening 

today's chillout music (385)

the numa band

today's chillout music (384)

rolling stones / undercover of the night (extended version)

nice dub rock disco classics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sea side week end (18)

N.Yのガラージ名門レーベル「P&P Records」からの1976年に発表された、CLOUD ONE(PATRICK ADAMS)の極メロウなシンセ〜ピアノを擁したグル−ヴに浸れる1枚♪

サウンド・メイクからバックのフィメール・コーラスまで浮遊感バツグン、気だるくも洗練されたピアノの絡みも最高、アーバンかつフリーキーな最高に心地よいサマーブリーズ感がサイコーです。

ROY AYERSや、KOOL&THE GANG「SUMMER MADNESS」などを思わせる名曲ですね。

today's chillout music (383)

ju-par universal orchestra / moods and grooves

today's chillout music (382)

rasa / everything you see it me

A deeply spiritual group at the core – so much so that the songs here are all guided towards the aims of Krishna – but one who works with the best sort of jazzy soul styles of the late 70s! The album's become a surprising modern soul classic over the years – a record that was originally aimed at a small audience, but which has moved into countless collections – thanks to its righteous message and warmly jazzy grooves – an approach that's quite heavy on smooth keyboards too! Lead vocals are mostly by Chris McDaniels – who's got a laidback blue-eyed soul approach – but a few other singers are featured as well – and Randy Brecker also plays a bit of trumpet on the record. Titles include the funky electric groover "Chanting", plus "Everything You See Is Me", "Just For Believing", "The Dream Is Over", "Within The Sound", and "Question In My Mind"

today's chillout music (381)

eddie palmieri / lucumi,macumba,voodoo

today's chillout music (380)

ofra haza / fifty gates of window-yemenite songs

Yemenite Songs a.k.a. Shirey Teyman (Hebrew: שירי תימן) is a 1987 album by Ofra Haza, in which the Israeli pop star returned to her roots interpreting traditional Yemeni Jewish songs with lyrics coming from the poetry of 16th century Rabbi Shalom Shabazi. The album was recorded with both traditional and modern musical instruments; wooden and metal percussion, Yemenite tin and tambala, strings, brass and woodwind as well as drum machines and synthesizers. The songs are sung in Hebrew with a Yemenite dialect and in Arabic.The opening song "Im Nin' Alu"'s a cappella intro would eventually become the starting point of Haza's international career as it was sampled by a number of European and American rap and dance acts like Eric B. & Rakim on their "Paid In Full" and M|A|R|R|S on "Pump Up the Volume" which led to Haza releasing a dance remix of her own recording in 1988 (subtitled Played In Full) which became a pop chart hit in many parts of the world. Remixes of both "Im Nin' Alu" and "Galbi" were included on the first international album Shaday.The Yemenite Songs album has also been released under the title Fifty Gates of Wisdom.

today's chillout music (379)

manu dibango / abele dance (dub mix)

today's chillout music (378)

sly & robbie / fire (12inch)

today's chillout music (377)

cameo / she's strange

By 1984, African-American popular music had become extremely high tech. The horn-powered funk bands that were huge in the 1970s were out of style, and young audiences were demanding hip-hop, electro-funk, and urban contemporary -- not horn bands that sounded like the Ohio Players or Tower of Power circa 1975. Horn bands were still in vogue only in the home of the go-go explosion: Washington, DC. But these changes in the marketplace didn't hurt Cameo; both commercially and creatively, 1984's She's Strange was a winner. Thankfully, Cameo leader Larry Blackmon isn't afraid to try different things on this excellent album. The mysterious title song (a major hit) and the sociopolitical "Talking Out the Side of Your Neck" find Cameo responding to hip-hop's popularity by including a lot of rapping, while "Lé Ve Toi!" is very rock-minded -- it's still funk, but funk laced with lots of rock. "Tribute to Bob Marley" is a reggae gem that salutes the Jamaican legend, and "Hangin' Downtown" is a smooth, jazzy number with a definite quiet storm appeal. When She's Strange soared up Billboard's R&B albums chart, one had to admire Cameo's durability. Other bands that had emerged in the 1970s were hurting, but with She's Strange, Cameo had no problem maintaining both its freshness and its popularity.

sea side week end (17)

Larry Blackmon率いる大所帯FUNK BAND 、Cameo 84年作。

Group Home"Supa Star"で使用されたスロウ・ナンバー"Hangin' Downtown"や、2PAC、NATE DOGGネタの"She's Strange"など、サンプリング・ソースが多数収録のナイスなアルバムですが、今回ご紹介するのは、極上のメロウ・グルーヴ"Love You Anyway"。マイナーな曲ですが胸キュンになる名曲です⭐︎

today's chillout music (376)

lenny white / my turn to love you (dub version)

Remix – François Kevorkian, Jay MarkVocals 
Written-By – Eddy Grant

nice spacy dubby garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

today's chillout music (375)

tamiko jones / love trip

today's chillout music (374)

 prince far i & the arabs /cry tuff dub encounter chapter1

Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1 is a 1978 dub album by Prince Far I, which was credited on its release to his backing band The Arabs. It was produced by Prince Far I, engineered by Dennis Bovell and Mark Lusardi, and mixed by Adrian Sherwood. 

♪meditation music (19)

talking headsなどを見いだしたことで知られるアメリカ人プロデューサー、craig leonのセルフ・パフォーマンス作品、81年作。

ミニマリズムでゴリゴリな電子音が脳天に響くいかした実験音楽です。

today's chillout music (373)

marcos valle / previsão do tempo

While Garra had seen all of Marcos Valle's talented parts -- songwriting, production, singing, and performing -- coalesce into the most beautiful whole ever seen in Brazilian music, Previsão do Tempo represented a slight pulling back from those lofty heights. Easygoing and relaxed where Garra had been nearly giddy with joy, the album still didn't lack for career-topping moments -- most of them due to the sunny groove produced by Valle with his backing band (soon to break away and form the boundary-pushing Azymuth). With Valle on Fender Rhodes and Jose Roberto Bertrami on Mini-Moog and ARP, the album is more electronic than electric, but with soloists as talented as these, and a lifetime of musical instincts to draw on, the results are absolutely pristine. (Only Stevie Wonder was capable of coaxing the same type of warm, fluid grooves from his coterie of synthesizers, and integrating them so flawlessly into his productions.) As could be expected, narrative songwriting takes a backseat. In its place are loose, aqueous, funk-filled jams with synth and electric bass leading the way. Garra is still the peak of Marcos Valle's '70s output, but Previsão do Tempo is its own masterpiece, one where a listener plays connect-the-dots to hear the beauty inside.

a plant with beautiful leaves

today's chillout music (372)

monsoon / third eye

Where Indipop began and still one of the great experiments in East-West pop culture. The heart of the group was vocalist Sheila Chandra and the underrated men-in-the-shadows Steve Coe and Martin Smith on whatever instrument came to hand. Other musicians contributed color parts, including Paul James who found fame and glory with the European folk-dance ensembles Blowzabella and Scarp. Best known for their singles "Ever So Lonely" and "Shakti" Monsoon was a signpost to new space and the launch pad of its three major players. An important album, it had its flaws but it was the first in its field.

today's chillout music (371)

matt bianco

today's chillout music (370)

freeez / southern freeez (version)

I cannot quote exactly when, but I only ever spoke with John Rocca of Freeez once, when he worked on Van sales for Tony Monson's Disc Empire Ltd., about 1979, prior I guess to starting his group.Tony had a retail record outlet down the Fulham (Worlds End) part of the Kings Road, Chelsea, and I met Rocca there briefly, and he knew who I was (proprietor - Yankee Disc Distr.), and a former employee of Disc Empire, but I would have to say he was from West Lon

today's chillout music (369)

wendell harrison / organic dream

Organic Dream was originally issued in 1981; the second Wendell Harrison album from his WenHa label. The set was released in a limited run, primarily as a vehicle for Harrison to document his tunes for publishing purposes, and to act as a calling card for booking agents. On this Luv N' Haight replica reissue, he confesses in the liner notes that his early records for WenHa were more like demos than carefully planned-out recordings, because he had a small budget and no distribution outlet. It sounds exactly like one; but that's not a criticism. "Ginseng Love" must be among the only post-disco-era R&B tunes to feature a clarinet and flute (both played by Harrison) in the front line. The Moog strings by Dennis Boles weight it down, however. Faring far better is "Winter," which harkens back to Harrison's years in the Tribe collective. His clarinet, bells, organic percussion, and Pam Wise's acoustic piano offer a shimmering, quiet meditation on the season. Harrison's playing is warm, original, and spiritual. "Love Juice" is exactly what it sounds like, a funky disco jam with an amped-up bassline by Wendell Lucas, and Harrison's wailing tenor over the riff, with vocals repeating "love that juice," repeatedly. It would have made a great 12". "Peace of Mind" commences as a spiritual soul ballad sung by Miche Braden before transforming itself into a smooth funk jam with excellent guitar work by Kenny Demery. "The Wok" is nearly inexplicable; it's an attempt at smooth, spacey, nocturnal funk and notable for its considerable experimentation. Harrison's clarinet floats above the meaty bassline, analog synths, electric guitars, and drums. It's a high point. Closer "A Green Meadow," with its more nuanced synth strings, icy Rhodes, amped-up bassline, and Harrison's tenor is an excellent illustration of Detroit smooth jazz. Organic Dream is imperfect in sound, production, and conception. That said, it's an interesting historical portrait of Detroit's Do-It-Yourself aesthetic during a particularly undocumented (though fertile) era (Griot Galaxy, on the avant end of the jazz spectrum, were also on the scene recording during this period). Moreover, it provides compelling, even prophetic evidence that Harrison was trying to weave together a host of different musics that were only woven seamlessly together, first with the real advent of sampling, and then in the sounds of club jazz and neo-soul.

sea side week end (16)

アメリカのジャズ・ボーカル・グループ、"Rare Silk"のナイス・メロウ・グルーヴ "storm" 85年作。

ゆるいパーカッションと、サックス、女性コーラスのコントラストが、たまらないッス☆

ヘタなchilloutの新譜よりも、和める名曲ですネ☆

today's chillout music (368)

patti austin / havana candy

CTI was having its troubles financially at the time. They recycled arrangements for all their artists and limited their budgets. Austin sang this undistinguished material with as much conviction as she could muster, but the general pallid air lingering over the production also affected her vocals.

today's chillout music (367)

antonio carlos & jocafi / mudei de ideia

See the pretty cover? See the pretty cover burn the eyeball. The pretty cover is an invitation to have a nice acid guitar player burn your ass. Come in and feel the flames scorch your behind. You'll love it. This can be called Samba Funk with a Rock edge or it could be called Samba Rock with a funky edge. You decide. One thing is for sure, some of Jimi Hendrix's sweat fell on the guitar player.