VA Mix Series: Suncial Dancetancing
Welcome to the beginning of Month 2 of Quarantine. The sun is shining. I haven’t left my house except to walk my dogs in days. I feel like dancing.
SO, my dear friends, I put together a mix of some random jams that have been getting asses shaking around our house and making hay while the sun shines during the first month of being cooped up. Excuse my awful pun, I made it one time and now I hate it so much that you have to hear it.
We’re gonna do some Suncial Dancetancing
T R A C K L I S T
Crashers - Flight To Jamaica
No idea how I found this song, can’t find almost anything about it. Appears to be an 80s dance/disco track written by a couple guys who used to be in Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Upsetters after they moved to New York.
Righeira - Vamos a la Playa
God-tier Italo-disco that is inexplicably in Spanish despite everyone in the band being Italian. The music video for this song is fucking insane and I love it. Someone please get a pair of wrist communicators so we can sing into them together while we dance on a blown out soundstage.
Mafikizolo - Gate Crash
South African dance pop, I found a 6 hour long playlist of this stuff on Spotify and have been just crushing it whenever I feel down. This song is from pretty early in Mafikizolo’s career and they have gone on to become one of the most popular South African groups of the 21st century.
Alan Shelly - Party Freaks
Can’t find a ton of info about this song either. Alan Shelley appears to have done a bunch of collabs in the 60s with Manu Dibango (who wrote the legendary “Soul Makossa” the chorus of which MJ lifted for the part in “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” where he goes, “Mama Say Mama Sa Ma Makossa”). All of this would lead me to believe that Shelly is probably West African? Anyway, this is some dirty 70s funk, you Party Freak!
The Strikers - Body Music
Low rider anthem from a New York disco/funk band. There was so much of this shit going on in the 80s that was so good. No matter how deep I dig, the hits keep on coming.
Herbie Hancock - Sunlight
Prime early-funk era Herbie. So much vocoder on this entire record. Mellow, sublime and funky. This entire record bangs so hard.
Edikanfo - Nka Bom
London-based Nigerian expat afrobeat from the 80s. Brian Eno produced this record the same year he did his seminal, sample-freak record, “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” with David Byrne. The horns in this band are about as tight as they come and that album cover too…
The Gap Band - Early in the Morning
If we’ve ever gotten drunk on my back porch, it’s entirely possible I have expounded at length about my love for the Gap Band. These funky-ass psychedelic space cowboys from Oklahoma never fail to get my booty shaking, and I dare you to sit still when he launches into, “So I gotta GET UP!” Also the music video is amazing. Random chicken suit, drummer plays the whole song with flaming drumsticks, random aerobics backup dancers, fringe on the pants.
Cymande - Bra
Another group of funky expats from the far reaches of the British Empire, this time from the West Indies. There’s some Caribbean percussion vibes in the drum break in this tune which may also be recognized from De La Soul’s “Change in Speak” and Gang Starr’s “Movin’ On” and a bunch of other early hip hop tracks.
Evelyn “Champagne” King - Nobody Knows
Another artist of whom’s virtues I have been known to wax rhapsodic after a couple of Mai Tais. This track is off of her first record which was buoyed to success by the essential, “Shame” but I love the straight ahead disco bounce of Nobody Knows.
The Brothers Johnson
EVERYBODY TAKE IT TO THE TOP, WE’RE GONNA STOMP ALL NIGHT. Come on, y’all. (Another banger of a music video, so many mustaches and sexy guitars alongside the squarest white guy drummer.)
Umoja - 707
Another South African dance banger, this one from the late 80s/early 90s. So much vocoder and flabby synth bass. Pushes all my buttons. Awesome Tapes from Africa just re-released this and also dug up the music video for this tune and it rips so hard. Silver capes and keytars.
Eusebio y su Banjo - Triste Melodia
One of my all-all time favorite Latin bands. Banjo-led Peruvian cumbia with just a tinge of psychedelia. I would probably fight someone if I ever found any of Eusebio’s records on vinyl. A little more mellow for the cooldown of your dance session.
I love you all, hope you’re staying sane, don’t forget to go outside and feel the sun on your face a little bit and maybe get your body movin’.