Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - A Very Ping Pong Christmas Funky Treats From Santa's Bag [2008]

Merry Xmas:

Not underscovered, not even close but hey I bought it for christmas so you can have it too - just promise to buy it for your funky loved one

This is a lower quality rip (~119kbps VBR) as I don't really like releasing new albums if I can help it

http://sharebee.com/861b3d62

Sorry, so Sorry

A few days ago I dropped my hard drive and my 40,000 tracks dun gone died. I have back ups of most of it but it will take me a while to A) buy a new drive, b) restore all 320GB+ from zillions of DVD back ups, CD originals and a few harddrives. I am now suicidal because the time spent organising my library etc was unmeasurable. To add to this I am off to Nigeria for two weeks (looking forward to finding some Afrobeat rarities I hope) so I cannot promise to be posting much for a while.

Don't forget me as I will be back around Christmas I'm sure

Spanky

The Mackrosoft - Antonio's Giraffe [2006]

It's not (in my humble opinion) as interesting as their first album, Journey to Vaginus (!!!), but the Herbie Hancock fuelled funkin jazz vibe is ever present here - for a host of underscovered exploratives see their website http://www.mackrosoft.com/

http://sharebee.com/d04504ae

Doctor L, Tony Allen et al. - Psyco On Da Bus [2001]

To call Tony Allen undescovered is absurd, however this album is relatively under appreciated and verges on a genre of it's own, recorded during Allen's tour at the turn of the millenium it seemed to go relatively unnoticed. Certainly it's blend of genres if not groundbreaking is beautiful enough to deserve constant rotation - groove or smooth its a heady blend of educated music and at least for the moment moves me forward from my afrobeat obsession to pastures new...

http://sharebee.com/291f0622

Ibrahim Electric - Meets Ray Anderson Again [2007]

Fantastic live album from this Danish funk groove group and the trombonist supreme. Funky fun and as wild as ever Ibrahim Electric's albums are all fantistic - by adding a dash of rock riff to a hard rare funky groove (they are Danish after all) these guys create a frenetic funk that must have every one in the house grooving something rotten - this is to promote their new album, Brothers Of Utopia which is as consistently great as the rest of them (and I haven't got yet)

http://sharebee.com/d9d6e6d2

If you love it (and you will) I am happy to email you an additional link to their album Absinthe which contains a number of the tracks here in pristine studio form - just contact underscovered of gmail.com and I'll send you the link you're after

Headson Groove - Vitsiozi [2007]

This great Greek little funking, breaking and chilling EP is up next since rumour has it that there's an album coming - if you have the awesome comp "Freestyle 4 Funk" then you have half this EP (and quite possibly the better half) but not the title track (which is what lead me to buy it myself). Interestingly these guys (one guy called Sotiris Egolfopoulos actually) as with a few other Timewarp artists seem to be doing lot of digital releases only - guess you djs all have traktor now so vinyl is just a message not a medium....

http://sharebee.com/8c50d908

Belgian Afrobeat Association - The King Is Among Us [2003]

I'd say this is a fairly underscovered contemporary Afrobeat with an ensemble swing feel at times - the instrumentals are fantastic and luckily there's quality vocals too - beyond that I know little about them - I haven't really even googled them properly - I'm just getting this out because I wanted to post something and this is obscure/rare enough to be worthy /deserving of promotion

Enjoy

http://sharebee.com/6010bf19

Big Black - If Your Diggin' What You're Doin' Keep On Doin' What You're Diggin' [1971]

Ahh the roots of funk. Soulful singing, african influences on those funky free drums, electric guitars played the way they're meant to be. Social comment and an album title that while not psychedelic is a strain on the brain and groovy too. Rare in every sense of the word, if not underscovered

http://sharebee.com/eb60f07e

Bentzon Brotherhood - Godzilla des Groove [2004]

A slick groovy jazzy live album that ranges from instrumental Herbie Hancockery to smooth vocal Acid Jazzery and an obvious signal that the Brotherhood had more to come - which of course they have delivered with a number of solid funky singles on Freestyle Records - let's just hope that Nikolaj Bentzon find time amongst his other projects to deliver another album of equal calibre and building on the direction he's moved in with freestyle records

http://sharebee.com/7c01ea4c

Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra - Searching For A Bit Of Popularity [2008]

I feel guilty. I mean this is the first and thus far only full length release by the LFJSO and I'm too lazy to strip it down to 128kb to ease my conscience - so maybe I'm just desperate for friends and, boy, I bet some of you will be greatful - this is the sort of stuff that should be on flatsoulspreading, let's go get it or jinkz musings - deep groovin funk, lashings of hammond, and just the right amount of jazz to rock my world and funk my pillow (I try to ignore the weak album cover!). Besides needing to share this discovery and the apparent lack of awareness I can only say the guys behind this aren't newcomers they 've been busy lofi lounging italian mafiarte for a while now in the guise of Modulo 5 and others. Which I can't and won't hold against them now they've dropped this bomb !(I, like many of us I suspect, have a love hate relationship with lounge and lofi)

Get listening this is the one - and I have no doubt I'll see a flurry of reposting of this babe (you know who you are)

http://sharebee.com/6c116bbc

Mofro - Blackwater [2001]

Ok, it's difficult to describe this as underscovered as it was an amazon album of the year 2001 but since I only came upon them recently and perhaps due to their 'deep south' bluesy blue-eyed swamp soul sound that seems not to cross the Atlantic so easily as it's brown-eyed brother I didn't discover them until very recently. Rocking stuff and there's plenty more of their stuff out there...

http://sharebee.com/c6636574

Black Market Audio - Autorama [2001]

The debut album from dutch groovateers is pretty sweet, covering a multitude of my favourite comtemporary styles (groove, funk, breaks, lounge etc) with the aplomb that only middling Europeans and the Swedish seem to muster (of course that's not to see that Latin influenced groove isn't awesome and that other Scandinavian breaks aren't errrr.... very occasionally spot on - no names mentioned). Anyway their second album (Shake! 2006) follows on from this and for those of you who like obscurities/variety keep an eye for their compilation of old school "Dutch Rare Groove".

Don't think this is genred and BPMd as yet but besides that should be good

http://sharebee.com/f30b4aad

Phat Phunktion - You and Me [2004]

(Is it just me or is album art just not working at the mo?

I'm going pop - trouble is these days blogspot seems to be making sure every bit of music no matter how obscure seems to be available - so I might change tack and start doing compilations of tracks that have never made it to albums/compilations that (in my opinion) should have. Any ways here's an Acid Jazz, Souly poppy number by Phat Phunktion - their second album Soul Juice is less insipid and more accomplished but I'm trying not to give away people's best work

http://sharebee.com/313fb2c8

VA - James Brown's Funky People Part 3 [2000]

This one's for essential elements to say thanks for the awesome feat of his breakonomics collection. Whilst this is clearly the third in the series and a little dry - it makes a funk album for funkin' for two in the dancefloor under the duvet - of course if you're an old cheesy man like me you might want Al Green's latest Lay It Down instead but I can remember when foreplay was more of a task than sex so maybe mrs spanky will get a JB's Funk People pressie for her birthday

http://sharebee.com/842e0824

Funset - Live Ragga Pumpkin [2005]

Initially I was going to post The Apples first or Seconf album to mark the release of they're new album Buzzin' About but flatsoulspreading pipped me to the post so here's another awesome Israeli delivery

I first discovered MC Karolina and Funset from the awesome Best Seven compilations (Best seven Selections 1 and 2) - soulful, dubby, nu reggae or something - maybe its just trip hop really - whatever it is I like it. Here's the live version of their album Ragga Pumpkin - not that you'd notice that it's live...

I can't be arsed to rate sellers anymore there's so many legal and illegal sites out there selling mp3's now It would take me a week to check them all.

You can buy Ragga Music and Best Seven's Selections on emusic (that's where I got part 2 and my non-live Ragga Pumpkin!) part 1 was a review copy I got. Let's hope they get more stuff out soon...

http://sharebee.com/40bde5c9

PS the playlists in the folder are wrong so delete them on unpack! (this is a copy I skanked off the net so no wonder they're wrong)

Rhythm Funk Masters - Afro-American-Arctic [2007]

This was requested on http://flatsoulspreading.blogspot.com and since I'm a big fan of old school Afrobeat and these fellahs have a nice Jazz Funk Afrobeat groove going there she blows


http://sharebee.com/4073090e

God Made Me Funky - We Can All Be Free [2006]

The Canadian Black Eyes Peas - funky like the name says and just as poppy really but I'm no longer young enough to be anti-pop and given that a large part of the beats and breaks I listen too were the pop of their time I'm unashamed of the fact. So be ready for an R&B flavoured mix of funky light hip-hop and almost serious beats and breaks. They've got a new album out this year (Enter The Beat) which is pretty good and I wanted to post their eponymous debut but I can't find it so you get this instead. If you like Plantlife or UnkleJam or Nu funk you should like this (or at least be pleased to know their sound). Would like to see them live that's for sure - they sound like one of those bands whose sound would carry well off record too...

Purchase: emusic, itunes
Freeloaders: the usual ...... 98facc93

Un-Cut - The Un-calculated Some [2003]

Totally overlooked as far as I can tell, this is a fantastic pop drum and bass acid jazz effort and deserved to go further. Of course drum and bass never really went far - they should have more pop friendly versions with remixes as well but hey. Give it a listen - and if they're still together let me know. Some fun samples and styles all mixed in too

Purchase - dunno, can't find it I got this on CD remainder/bargain bin

Freeloaders: the usual a0369773

Ceux Qui Marchent Debout - Funky Stuff in a reggae style -

Another slightly gimmicky french offering - probably best described as Acid Jazz (well best described besides the obvious clue in its title). Enjoyable and obscure but not really a classic, somehow though I quite like it - maybe because it cheers me up. The french means Those who walk standing up (I think!) which also says a lot about the album

Purchase: juno mp3fiesta

Freeloaders: the usual 10a6e7bf

Jaques Dutroc - L'essential Dutronc [1994] (Abridged)

Well last year Justice (hmm..) dropped one and Andy Smith seems a fan so here's an abridged look at a french celeb that like the Hoff and many other b grade celebs has produced some bloody awful music. I'm being a bit shit here since by abridging the album I'm giving you every track of his worth having but hey he's french and if you're a fan of Bardot and other almost-punk 60s beat you should have some fun



Purchase: why would you? mp3fiesta



Freeloaders: the usual 3a5b9d07

B'ismillah- Highlights From The Fes Festival Of World Sacred Music [1997]

I woke up one sunny morning a few months back and there was a beautiful golden crescented dome that had appeared on the skyline behind my flat - it cheered me up no end (http://www.alrahma-mosque.com/) and today at home for lunch they were practicing the Muezzin which again made my day. Now I'm no muslim but trust me when I say if there's any good in this world it's embodied in the Sufi way. So here's a taster of the beauty of Sufism and Islam

Purchase: CD only as far as I can tell
Freeloaders: sharebee 6c2f4e78

Rephrase - Little Victories [2007]

Arrgh! I've had two opportunities to move permanently to Australia and I waish I has because the music scene there is rocking - I mean I knew about the live band rock scene but little did I realize that the best in dub/reggae/soul is coming from NZ and some hot beats/breakfunk is pouring out from AUS. And here's my sacrificial lamb to represent the Australian quarter. Some great breakfunk and mellow funky house all put together on one album - and even an AGFA remix to round it off.

Get Down, get down under.

Purchase: emusic, juno, itunes

Freeloaders: the usual d6218c3e

Mp3Fiesta, Completeness and I

Whilst I tend to stick to emusic as my source for music I recently took the plunge with mp3fiesta since besides emusic it seemed to be able to fill the gap for the more obscure albums I was after - however I haev noticed that they have more than back catalog stuff which made me a little suspicious at the prices they charge.

Of course I did 'check them out' and their ecommerce credentials are impeccable - unfortunately a google search suggested that they were good boys, subsequent searches have shown me that they're acually a russian outfit mostly posting stuff they've scraped from torrents or elsewhere (hence the variety of bitrates etc). So once my current balance is out I'll not be using them as clearly they do not in any way support artists/labels (I thought the latter since it seemed back-catalogue stuff to me) and they basically just recycle stuff you can get for free anyway.

As for tagging stuff as available from them - I shall carry on as my intention here is to find the best source of mp3s on the web and if it happens to be a site in Russia (that is legal under Russian law) well that says more about the record industry's failure to get stuff out there and create mp3 portals where you get can just about anything you ever want. I mean if I was a seller I'd take requests (I mean once burnt you can resell ad infinitum and data on what's being requested would informa marketing decisions add infinitum).

My big debate now is whether I should make a concerted effort of tagging torrents (where available) and iTunes (which I just plain don't like) to see how good as sources they are too.

Please feel free to comment on this one...

Gioachino Rossini - Petite Messe Solonnelle beginning [1863]

I'm getting married this December so I've been attending to my soul a bit more lately and am pleased to say that the C of E has lightened up/modernised a fair bit since my school days (i mean the vicar basically flogged us a DVD called Evan Almighty (it is a good film, mind you) and we even had a hymn to the tune of Dambusters to finish the service on in high spirits. But that was the only good him the rest where solemn latin dirge's that are about as connected with Jesus as capitalism is. And given that Jesus (if nothing else) was at heart a progressive rebel and worldchanger, it's always disappointeed me that his followers are so conservative. Which brings me to this little number, Rossini was an Italian master of Opera but like me (and anyone sane) he thought church needed jazzing up a little bit and so he created this take on mass. And boy is it so much better than anything less modern than a 20th century gospel choir of course whether or not its for you may depend on how against religion you are but Rossini said it best when discussing the work:

Have I just written music for the blessed or just some blessed music?

I'd say both, you?

Purchase: emusic, amazon, 7digital

Freeloaders: sharebee 9fd05937

It's The Blues Man - Eddie "Blues Man" Kirkland [1961]

Whilst Eddie Kirkland is still going lion strong (strong as any Jamaican born Alabama raised bluesman can be), his first album (and I believe before he hooked up with John Lee himself) is my favourite - and since despite a re-release it seems hardish to find on CD (and mp3 but not ringtone!? it seems...) it qualifies as underscovered. Energetic, wistful (of course), and getting hotter every track in - King Curtis on sax and some sweet female vocals all adding to the brew, I challenge you to not feel yourself juking the joint. "Blues Man" indeed.

Purchase: mp3fiesta
Freeloaders: sharebee 95fcaceb

DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like [1995]

Probably the best single CD single purchase I have ever made.

Whilst DJ Shadow is by no means underscovered (in fact very few of the stuff here really is - perhaps I just mean hard to get a hold of via the Freewave) I feel that no music blog of mine could be complete without this album, and since this shit is 13 years old maybe you haven't heard it.

Anyway, these tracks are all available on the 98 album Preemptive strike which you should go buy right now.

Why? Well like some of the other posts here this qualifies as, if I can be so pretentious (and I can because I always am), spiritual/moving and all the rest of it. I mean the title says it all so listen to it all in one go and go to a better place. Serious beats, vocals, atmospheric instrumentation, whimsy and emotion you name it its go it. Deep, deep, deep, phat ph*cking sh*t

Purchase (album not single): mp3fiesta plong

Freeloaders: sharebee 5b08a7b9

MJ Cole - Cut To The Chase [2003]

[Waffle deleted]

My best summer ever was the summer in Brixton where the whole of South London was flooded with the sunshine tunes of M J Cole's Sincere. And heres the follow up album that I think was largely ignored - not as groundbreaking and elegant as his debut but nonetheless a listen that will help you understand why dubstep producers are in so much mourning for 2 step - only the good die young.

Purchase: plong, mp3fiesta

Freeloaders: sharebee ee7504e6

Charles Kynard - Reelin' With the Feelin' ['69]/Wa-Tu-Wa-Zui ['71]

This one's for my first comment poster, AcidJazzy as a thank you for poppin my posting cherry.

Recorded in the hazy days of cool this might be a bit too retro for the average nineties/naughties Acid Jazz buff but there's still plenty of licks worth digging; and, if when you hear Blue Note you think of a record label rather than a phat night club, you'll be styling like a good un.

Oh yeah and Wa-Tu-Wa-Zui means "wear a nappy" in spanky speak coz that track has me needing restraint everytime I hear it, simply fantastic

Purchase: mp3fiesta

Freeloaders - sharebee 2426ea08

Melvin Van Peebles - What The Fuck You Mean I Can't Sing?! [1973]

Okay, so he's more famous for his son and his TV shows but, like the celebs of today he tried his hand at tunage and this the one album that says the most about his talent. A laugh - oh yeah. A gimmick - perhaps. Good music - unlikely. A classic - no way. A great listen - absolutely. Think of it a soundtrack or poetry or whatever - and give me more of those Sweet Sweetback's Badass songs.

Purchase: mp3fiesta

Freeloaders: sharebee e0852955

Border Crossing - Ominous [2005]

Reggae, dub, dancehall, hip hop - Border Crossing are the quintessential underscovered group. Perhaps they simply came too late -they could have saved us from buying every Massive Attack album in the hope that it would be as exciting as Blue Lines or as polished as Protection instead of rather uninspiring. Whatever the reasons I got this in the bargain bin and have listened to it regularly ever since - a quality and varied album that's never bland but possibly too easy on the ear to have reached larger status.

Purchase: 7digital
Freeloaders: sharebee a81d477a

All Good Funk Alliance - On The One [2005]

Often overshadowed by Washington DCs awesome Fort Knox Five, the All Good Funk Alliance have done some crisp tracks and remixes too and I've done my best to badger all my DJ friends into filling their BreakFunk stockings with AGFA and FKF. Sadly for them trawling the web for AGFA's albums defeated them until now (tunestop had one I think) and whilst their best tracks and mixes feature on many compilations there's nothing quite like an album to get you loving a group the way you should. 21st century funk to be sure and well worth purchase price from emusic.

Purchase: emusic
Freeloaders: sharebee da42cc3b

Lightnin' Rod - Hustler's Convention [1973]

Back in the days of yore (90s) I picked up a mix tape (yup a tape) from a clothes shop called Driver in Northampton - the tape played out with a fantastic tale of a 70s style hustler - prototypical rap over funky backing tracks - but I never found out how the tale ended. I didn't know the name or the artist and back in those Compuserve days it certainly didn't exist in the interweb. Later on I asked a few DJs and they reckoned it must have been Iceberg Slim but that was a dead end. Finally Google rescued me when I finally decided that if it was about a hustler going to a convention a good search would be Hustler Convention and combined with the amazing back catalogues on emusic I was released from purgatory and finally owned this album. Some may find it only a one listen wonder but a wonder it is nonetheless.

Purchase: emusic

Freeloaders: sharebee 7a897567

Cleveland Watkiss - Victory's Happy Songbook [2002]

You'll probably have heard Cleveland Watkiss's voice already (he gets around) but his album is a rare example of how a more or less entire album dedicated to God can still be interesting, contemporary and a pleasure to listen to even if you don't share the singer's spiritual sentiments. Soulful in every sense of the word, a solo album by this guy was long overdue

mp3: plong emusic(US)
Freeloaders: sharebee 223fc6bb

Keith Jarrett Trio - Changeless [1989]

Keith Jarrett isn't exactly underscovered, his Koln Concert album is one of (if not the) best selling albums of all time and a must have album. But whilst a lot of his work is improv and a bit too plinkety plonkety and jazz nerdish for many (and dare I say it me too). Changeless bucks that trend but seems to be largely ignored. Philosophically and musically perfect put this on loud, close your eyes and feel the music. Recorded live you can here the artists/audiences musical orgasms as Keith pushing the boundaries of experience. Or in the insert's words, this is:

D A N C I N G
E N D L E S S

L I F E L I N E

E C S T A C Y

Mp3 purchase: 7digital, itunes

Freeloaders: Sharebee 18a3d146

Smith & Mighty - Bass is Maternal [1995]

In the late nineties my heart and ears were firmly in Bristol - Roni Size, Massive Attack, Portishead - it was all happening - the birth of trip hop and drum and bass from Hip Hop and Jungle - what happens when the suburban meets the urban, black meets white (and every color in between). Anyway one of the more interesting bristol outfits was More Rockers and one of their more interesting groups was Smith and Mighty - so have a listen and digest, Bass is maternal.

Mp3 Purchase: Plong itunes

Freeloaders: Rapidshare 97465340 SmiMit_BaIsMat.rar

Digital Jockey - Codeine Dub [2005]

Another real musician here - piano, Terry Armstrong's amazing voice, a classical vibe and sincere dub sounds . High culture dub reggae soul? - it can't get much better than this. Damn those Germans make some good music when they're not into techno/rap/Hasslehoff

Mp3 purchase: juno, emusic

Freeloaders: filefactory 773b4f

Rob Dougan - Furious Angels [2003]

You've all heard Clubbed to Death that Elgar tune with Big beats too that has been played to death on TV the last few years. Well this is the album, but be open minded - Rob Dougan is clearly a classically trained musician so check out this varied offering of one of Mo-wax's most innovative artists -

mp3 purchase: 7digital

Freeloaders: RapidLeak Rob Dougan Furious Angels

Shuggie Otis - Inspiration Information [1974]

In his Dad's shadow Shuggie is a definitive underscovered artist who has been re-released in the 00s (so as usual shouldn't really be here!), he is apparently still kicking it with his Dad stateside. This guy was a musical polymath from production to experimentation - check him out you won't regret it and if you do you're probably in the wrong place!

Mp3 Purchase: emusic mp3fiesta itunes
Freeloaders: megaupload 9ISJRK8H

Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus [1996]

Since he's got a new album out this year (Back To Cat) I've decided to revisit a favourite artist of mine from days of yore (the nineties). Barry Adamson is a talent, probably not underscovered as an artist, though since this album is listed as Experimental Indie everywhere and is over a decade old I figure it probably qualifies. Great atmospheric jazz with beats the real doozer here is "Something Wicked This Way Comes" which does what it says on the tin. Don't miss the vocals from Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and Billy Mackenzie either - this guy is well-heeled.


mp3 purchase: amazon, plong, 7digital, itunes
Freeloaders: Mininova Barry Adamson

The Matthew Herbert Big Band - Goodbye Swingtime [2003]

Although some tracks are difficult and experimental (and apparently recorded behind plate glass!) there are some right doozers in this avant garde reinvention and exploration of 40s Big Band - watch out for Dani Sciliano’s vocals too.

mp3 purchase: plong
Freeloaders: Full Album at Megaerotic 6FWNSD99