BEG6 - Getting Nasty

Two years plus in the making, I've actually had the tracklisting nailed since about bloody xmas but just couldn't get my head together to sort some covers and just couldn't get inspired. Anyway, its done now - another eclectic mix along pretty much the same lines as before. Some lounge/library to start, some boogaloo, sweet seventies soul, gutsy R&B, reggae, jazz fusion, Brit R&B, modern day soul and...well you get the picture

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions. 

TRACKLIST

 

1. Cosmic Sea - Mystic Moods Orchestra   
2. Moneyrunner - John Schroeder   
3. If I Can't Fly - Honeycone   
4. Getting Nasty - Ike & Tina Turner   
5. Bla Bla Bla - Toots & The Maytals   
6. Jungle Fever - Big Jim 'H' And His Men Of Rhythm Play
7. Attica Blues - Archie Shepp   
8. Funky North Philly - Bill Cosby   
9. Reggae Juk - 100 men   
10. Hold Me Now - The Rumors   
11. Look At The View - The Action   
12. Sky High - Donald Byrd   
13. Sleeping With X - DC Fontana   
14. Bust-Out Brigade - The Go! Team   
15. You're In A Bad Way     - Saint Etienne   
16. Memphis Underground - Plimsoll Sandwich   
17. Beaver - Clarence Armstrong   
18. Peaceful - Georgie Fame   
19. Revenge Of Eastwood - The Prophets   
20. Disaster Area - Milt Matthews Inc.   
21. Coming Home Baby - Harry Stoneham & Johnny Eyden   
22. Stepping Stones - Johnny Harris

download the zip file here and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

DEG6 - You Little Punks Think You Own This Town

Well, finally - I've pulled my thumb out of my arse and designed the covers after having the disc sent to me by Diz over a month ago, and here it is, in all its glory. A seminal compilation with some well known and loved tracks and some not so well known (but definitely loved) tracks. Some surprises for me - especially the prodigy track that opens (the rest of their stuff is very different), some stuff I'm only just getting into like Jim Jones and some stuff which I (CB) will probably never get but Diz loves (Grinderman). But that is essentially what eclectic grooves is all about - discovering and maybe liking some new stuff.

I'll let Diz do his own write up on his track choices but for me this is a really bluesy/garage compilation. There is a great selection here, so download, listen and enjoy!

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions. 

TRACKLIST

• 01 Stand Up - Prodigy
• 02 Kill All Hippies - Primal Scream
• 03 T.O.R.N.A.D.O - Go! Team
• 04 Talk About The Blues - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• 05 Cement Mixer - Jim Jones Revue
• 06 Dog Faced Boy - Eels
• 07 Tighten Up - Black Keys
• 08 Evil Thing - Billy Childish & The Chatham Singers
• 09 Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) - The Vaccines
• 10 Human Fly - The Cramps
• 11 Be Brave - The Strange Boys
• 12 Let's Shimmy - King Colman
• 13 That Driving Beat - Willie Mitchell
• 14 Watch Your Step - Bobby Parker
• 15 Zig Zag Wanderer - Capt Beefheart & His Magic Band
• 16 I'm Gonna Be Free - Free Spirits
• 17 Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd
• 18 Half Full Glass Of Wine - Tame Impala
• 19 Penetration - Iggy & The Stooges
• 20 Worm Tamer - Grinderman

download the zip file here and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

Still oh so quiet

Over two years now since the last compilation - don't worry BEG6 is on its way

It's Oh So Peaceful.................

So where are the latest comps? Well, we've both been busy. Spoke with Diz on Friday and he felt the whole eclectic grooves thing has been getting a little formulaic lately - and I have to say I aggree. It's time for a re-think or just a break maybe? I did suggest that we did a comp of each others comps - take 2 tracks from each others comps and we'll put together our best of. It could be a go-er so keep them peeled on the blog for an update. I'll announce it in the usual places as per usual.

Anyway - I'm off on honeymoon in a few days so this is Bravo saying......Peace.....Out!

BEGV5 - Coming From A Higher Place - A Soundtrack

OK, so here we are with my fifth compilation. It's taken a lot longer to get upped as I wasn't quite happy with the tracklisting and left it alone for a month or so. Diz has had a copy of the old listing for some time now and his thoughts were to remove a Cockney Rejects track from the listing.....Cockney Rejects? Yup, great band love 'em loads but they didn't really fit in, as much as I wanted them to, with the rest of the fine tracks here. So they were replaced by the magnificent Serge Gainsbourg...who due to his Frenchness was also the inspiration for the cover, which the more astute/switched on amongst you will notice has 2 scenes from 1971 cop drama 'The French Connection' as it's theme. The cover was also another sticking point as I wanted to try and find some graphic novel images to carry along with Diz' theme, but I couldn't find the right ones....so stuck with a tried and tested method......pick some images I liked and whack them in.

On to the music, I wanted a definite feel to this one....a sort of soundtrack....something that wasn't necessarily overflowing with danceable tunes, but something that wouldn't be out of place in a 70's movie. I think I've got it just about right, some of the tracks could be from a scene where a classic open topped car is driving through the French Alps or somewhere in the Loire Valley, some have a more 'sinister' feel to them for an aggressive scene. I also wanted to make up a 'movie' to fit in with the tracks, along the lines of what Diz did with his fifth - but everything I came up with sounded like a bunch of pretentious tosh...so I gave up on that and thought "I'll let the tunes tell the story", but then decided that that sounded like a bunch of pretentious tosh too, so after all that....it's a bunch of eclectic songs, from the obvious movie themes like David Holmes' opening killer track (from Oceans Eleven), some garage punk/R&B courtesy of The Stairs and Thee Cybermen, the car chase scene from Bullitt, the brilliance of Massive Attack to the French Connnection of Monsieur Serge Gainsbourg and the great guitar on that track. I hope you enjoy it, I've found that it makes for a fantastic 'driving' compilation, which Diz also agreed with too.

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01 David Holmes - $160 Million Chinese Man
• 02 Greyboy Featuring Karl Benson - Greys Groove
• 03 Baby Charles - Comin' From A Higher Place
• 04 Billie Davies - There Must Be A Reason
• 05 Marvin Gaye - This Love Starved Heart Of Mine (It's Killing Me)
• 06 Ebony Rhythm Band - Drugs Aint Cool (Instrumental),
• 07 The Stairs - Mr Window Pane
• 08 Thee Cybermen - Ou Est Le Cahier?
• 09 Flow Dynamics - Better On Stage
• 10 Corduroy - Money Is
• 11 Lalo Schifrin - Shifting Gears
• 12 Dave Mitchell And The Screamer - The Trip
• 13 Dyke & The Blazers - We Got More Soul
• 14 Gabor Szabo - Beat Goes On
• 15 Guru (Featuring Dc Lee & Ronny Jordan) - No Time To Play
• 16 Isaac Hayes - No Name Bar
• 17 Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy
• 18 Serge Gainsbourg - Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je Men Vais
• 19 Silver & The Fiery Boys Band - Hey Sah Lo Ney
• 20 Wynder K Trio - Green Door
• 21 Quiet Village - Circus Of Horror

download the zip file here and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

DEGV5: That’s Cool, That’s Trash, This is An Introduction

Detective Joe Soul worked the DEGV5 zip code. It was, to say the least, an ‘interesting’ district of Delta City. On the one hand you had the cool side of town where the rich & famous lived, but turn down a block towards the east and you were in trashville.
The Wondrous Place was as borderline between the two as you could get. The clientele were strictly from the cool side but slit open its underbelly and out poured the trash. A whorehouse is still a whorehouse after all, no matter how it tries to paint itself.
Joe only had a moment to grasp the situation as he opened the door before something heavy came crashing down on the back of his head causing his body to jerk. Suddenly it all went dark and he was out like a light.
When he finally came round the body had gone but her purse had been dropped on the floor and inside were some possible clues: business cards for two clubs - The Roadrunner and Little Red Rooster’s. They had one thing in common, well two if you count the sleaze, they were both run by a cross-gender called Louie Louie.
Why is it never easy in this God forsaken town, thought Joe. Why does it always feel that the easy life is just out of reach?

(See below for artwork, tracklist and most importantly... the download link!)

DEGV5 - That's Cool, That's Trash, This Is DEGV5

And here it is - the fifth of Diz' stunning compilations. I'll let Diz do the story-telling, here's what he had to say when I was looking for inspiration for the cover - I'd suggested some sort of movie score/soundtrack, every song was to be relevant to a scene in a fictional movie that hasn't been made yet/never will be made;

I didn't really choose my tracks with a story-telling theme in mind tho'. With me it was more a case of thinking that a few spy-movie-themed tracks would fit in well with the slightly 'trashy-garage' feel I had in mind. What did occur to me as I was putting the running order together tho', and something you could maybe work into the cover art, was how my album would have worked as an old fashioned vinyl double album. 'Side 1', eg the 1st 6 tracks, are kind of held together musically by the organ sound that's prevalent on most of the tracks (mainly the Farfisa Organ I think, tho' not exclusively) and the fact that you have those classic tracks that have been covered and given an interesting alternative take (Roadrunner, Little Red Rooster, Louie Louie). Then 'Side 2' has a strong Garage & Blues flavour. 'Side 3' becomes the movie-spy-comic book-themed part of the album, with Agent oo-Soul, James Bond, Mission Impossible, The FBI & Spider-Man all getting in on the act before culminating in the explosive ending with The Hives. And then the album finishes with the last 5 tracks re-visiting some of the earlier places and themes, and coming full circle with the modern day artists featured. So maybe the cover for mine might work being divided into 4, perhaps a bit like a page from a comic book, where each pane represents 'one side'. How bout that as an idea? See what images you get from listening to it as well, as I'm sure that will help. I'll have a look & think about what images might work for the other panes as well, as I've already sent you one for 'side 3'

Diz was mainly (95%) responsible for the front cover art, that's all his own work and I reckon it looks excellent. My only input this time on coverart was some lighting effects on the front cover pics and the font for the title etc. The back cover follows on from his comic book scene with possibly one of my all time favourite comic book/graphic novel images - from the Watchmen (in vogue at the moment due to the movie being made).

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01 The Last Shadow Puppets - Wondrous Place
• 02 The Caesars - Jerk It Out
• 03 Inspiral Carpets - Joe
• 04 The Animals - Roadrunner
• 05 Sam Cooke (With Billy Preston & Ray Charles) - Little Red Rooster
• 06 Toots & The Maytals - Louie Louie
• 07 The Zombies -Out Of Reach
• 08 The Kingsmen - That's Cool, That's Trash
• 09 The Sonics - The Witch
• 10 The Ravonettes - Love In A Trashcan
• 11 Bo Diddley - Another Sugar Daddy
• 12 Howlin' Wolf - Who's Been Talking
• 13 Edwin Starr - Agent Double-O Soul
• 14 Roland Alphonso - James Bond
• 15 Jamo Thomas - I Spy For Th F.B.I.
• 16 Randy's Allstars - Mission Impossible
• 17 The Ramones - Spider-Man
• 18 The Hives - Tick Tick Boom
• 19 The Wailers - Out Of Our Tree
• 20 The Troggs - From Home
• 21 Rolling Stones - I'm Free
• 22 White Stripes - Rag & Bone
• 23 Kings Of Leon - Trani

download the zip file here and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

PS: My fifth will be on it's way shortly

Peace! Out!

BEGV4 - Stir It Up

My fourth comp and more of a search through the Bravo archives to songs that I either hadn't listened to in a long time or had never really appreciated before rather than new tunes to my collection. I just wanted to do another comp but hadn't bought much recently so trawled back through the collection. I think this is my fave so far. Not sure why, maybe it was the work that went into it. With vols 3 & 4 I've clipped tracks, altered volumes etc and then put them together as though they were being played on decks so there is very little gap between the tracks (consequently, don't include the gaps that burning apps tend to do as standard if burning to disc).

Love this cover, another iconic photo of Twiggy in this one and love that combination of colours too. As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01 - Patti Drew - Beggar For The Blues
• 02 - Soul Mission - Trans Global Express
• 03 - JTQ - Car Chase
• 04 - Aretha Franklin - Rocksteady (Alternate Mix)
• 05 - King Cannon (Karl Bryan) - Overproof (Aka Little Darlin')
• 06 - The Blenders - Decimal Currency
• 07 - Booker T Averhart & The Mustangs - Take Your Shoes Off Part 2
• 08 - Candido - I'm On My Way
• 09 - Brown Brothers Of Soul - Cholo
• 10 - The Gaturs - Gator Bait
• 11 - The Charmaines - I Idolize You
• 12 - Ike & Tina Turner - Finger Poppin'
• 13 - The Banana Splits - Doin’ The Banana Split
• 14 - Junior Wells - I Got A Stomach Ache
• 15 - Little Richard - I Don't Want To Discuss It
• 16 - Luther Ingram - Oh Baby Don't You Weep
• 17 - Memphis Horns - Soul Bowl
• 18 - Rex Garvin And The Mighty Cravers - Sock It To 'Em JB
• 19 - The Hippy Boys - Capo
• 20 - Ike Turner's Kings Of Rhythm - The New Breed (Pt 1)
• 21 - William Patton - Don't Be So Mean
• 22 - The Crystallites - Stop That Man
• 23 - The Charlatans - Stir It Up

download the zip file here and enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

DEGV4 - Welcome To Dreamsville

Diz' fourth comp, and another excellent one.....which was worth the oh so long wait eh Diz? ;O)

I'm not going to stand on Diz' toes, I'll let him fill you in on the selection of tracks etc. As for the cover? Don't you just love that pic of Marsha Hunt? An iconic photo if ever there was one!

From Diz;
"I was influenced slightly by Paul Weller's 22 Dreams album for this one. Not so much in the music style but in so much as I wanted it to be a musically eclectic journey which would dip n dive all over the place but would also hopefully work as a complete listen. Whether I succeeded or not is up to you to judge. It's held together largely by the Jazz/Funk tracks and the use of Flute I feel. I particularly like how the flute pulls together otherwise diverse acts like Jurassic 5, Lonnie Liston Smith & The Black Keys for example, taking you thru a hip-hop, jazz-funk, blues-rock trip in 3 easy moves :-)"

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01. Sammy Ambrose - Welcome To Dreamsville
• 02. Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators - Holdin' On
• 03. Donald Byrd - Steppin' Into Tomorrow
• 04. Jurassic 5 - Jayou
• 05. Lonnie Liston Smith - Expansions
• 06. Black Keys - Same Old Thing
• 07. Seasick Steve - Cut My Wings
• 08. Byther Smith - So Unhappy
• 09. Eli 'Paperboy' Reed & The True Loves - Take My Love With You
• 10. Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers - Doin' What I Wanna
• 11. Gil Scott Heron - Free Will
• 12. Richie Havens - Adam
• 13. The Herbaliser - Amores Bongo
• 14. Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Jungle Lion
• 15. Slim Smith - Everybody Needs Love
• 16. The Five Stairsteps - Don't Change Your Love
• 17. Poets Of Rhythm - Practice What You Preach
• 18. Sweet Vandals - You Wanna Be My Lover
• 19. Jimmy McGriff & Richard 'Groove' Holmes - Preacher's Tune
• 20. Marie Knight - Cry Me A River

download the zip file here and enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

BEGV3 - No Title Just Tunes

My third comp, some great tracks on here I think, some real 'unheard' gems courtesy of a raft of compilations of hard to find records that I was listening to at the time. No title for this one, don't ask me why, I think I just forgot. I got so carried away with the tracks and the cover design that I think I just fogot to name it. Some real danceable tunes on here and some unusual tracks too. Enjoy!

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01 Are You Satisfied - Three Degrees (1965)
• 02 Fried Scampi - The Masked Phantom (1966)
• 03 Jackpot - the Roulettes (1966)
• 04 Hold Down - The Kingstonians (1968)
• 05 2000 Tons Of TNT - GG All Stars (1969)
• 06 Some People Say - Modus (2007)
• 07 Soul Brother Testify - Original Soul Senders (1971)
• 08 Dance With Me - Delano Stewart (1970)
• 09 Lulu's Theme - The Johnny Harris Orchestra (1969)
• 10 The New Breed - Jimmy Holiday (1967)
• 11 My Babe - Willie Mitchell (1969)
• 12 Wade In The Water - Little Sonny (1970)
• 13 Oo Wee Baby, I Love You - Fred Hughes (1965)
• 14 Pleasure Web - Music Man (1973)
• 15 That's How Heartaches Are Made - Baby Washington (1963)
• 16 The Gospel According To The Bongolian - The Bongolian (2007)
• 17 The Monster - The Beverley Allstars (1970)
• 18 Jesse James - Laurel Aitken (1968)
• 19 Broadway Jungle - Maytals (1964)
• 20 Foey Man - George Dekker (1968)
• 21 Try My Love - Toni & The Showmen (1965)
• 22 Up In Heah - Jr. Wells (1966)
• 23 West Of Windward - The Vic Flick Sound (1967)
• 24 Your Love Is Indescribably Delicious - Willis Wooten (1968)
• 25 See Me - David Smith (1973)

download the zip file here and enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

DEGV3 - Aint It!

Diz' third comp, and a damn fine one in my not so humble opionion. Love the tracks on here. I'll let Diz fill you in with the details once again. Suffice to say this is well worth your 'effort' to download, burn, play and dance to!

From Diz;
"The idea of this one was to create a non-stop dance groove having been hugely influenced by Charlie's choices for his own Vol 3. The title "Aint it DEG3" was an easy choice given the amount of songs that had 'Aint' or 'Aint it' in their titles. That was just a coincidence really as the songs came first. This one is less 'eclectic' than the others as i was keen to keep a vibe going, so it pretty much swings back n forth between classic 6T's Soul/Rnb and Acid Jazz grooves."

"PS - Forgot to add, this one is my fave artwork of charlie's! :-)"

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• 01. Jr Walker All Stars - Moody Junior
• 02. The Sharpees - Do The 45
• 03. Wilmer & The Dukes - Give Me One More Chance
• 04. Brother Jack McDuff - Ain't It
• 05. Blues Busters Soon - You'll Be Gone
• 06. James Duncan - Three Little Pigs
• 07. Spencer Davis Group - Trampoline
• 08. Willie Tee - I Want Somebody
• 09. The Bootmen - Ain't It The Truth Babe
• 10. The Night Trains - The Killer
• 11. Freddie McKay - I'm A Free Man
• 12. Roy Redmond - Ain't That Terrible
• 13. Stoned Soul Picnic - Get Off The Bus
• 14. Soul Brothers Six - Thank You Baby For Loving Me
• 15. Caesar Frazier - Mighty Mouse
• 16. Eddie Lovette - Too Experienced
• 17. Eddie Parker - Love You Baby
• 18. Dave Hamilton - Ain't It A Groove
• 19. Phil Upchurch - Crosstown Traffic
• 20. Muddy Waters - Herb Harper's Free Press News

download the zip file here and enjoy!

Charlie Bravo.

Peace! Out!

BEGV2 - Bravo Likes To Boogaloo

Well, here we are. Number two in the series for myself - and a very definitive flow of styles. Whereas Diz went for a truly eclectic running order on number 2. I decided to be quite prescriptive in the running order. We go from the R&B of Don Gardner to the blues jazz of Mose Allison, to the brash garage of The Prime Movers and the Garage Punk of Thee Headcoat Sect to the seductive funk of The Bamboos and Lefties Soul Connection taking in the Hammond sound of Stoned Soul Picnic and finishing off with possibly (for me anyway) the finest piece of music (of any genre) ever performed - Cristo Redentor by Mr Donald Byrd, a jazz masterpiece - cheers for the tip Dan P - and even including the 90's sound of Shaun Ryder and Black Grape along the way!

As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

TRACKLIST

• My Baby Likes To Boogaloo - Don Gardner
• The Seventh Son - Mose Allison
• Billy's Bag - Billy Preston
• She's Looking Good - Rodger Collins
• Madame Garcia - Apostolic Intervention
• The Pink Wig - Thee Cybermen
• Bed & Board - Prime Movers
• Strychnine - Thee Headcoat Sect
• Man Taken From Guts - Thee Mighty Caesars
• 100 Year Old Riff - The Stabilisers
• Submarine - Black Grape
• Flute Salad - Ju Par Universal Orchestra
• Howling For Judy - Jeremy Steig
• Happy - The Bamboos
• Bam Bam - Lefties Soul Connection
• Hardtop 22 - Stoned Soul Picnic
• Mr Z - James Taylors 4th Dimension
• The Lions & The Cucumber - Vampires Sound Incorporation
• Dramastically Different - Beastie Boys
• Cristo Redentor - Donald Byrd
  

Download link for the zipped file here - as with the previous posts - ENJOY!

Peace! Out!

Charlie Bravo

DEGV2 - Groovin' For Mr Diz

So here we are, number 2 of Diz's fine compilation, I'll let Diz fill you in with the finer details on this comp. As for the cover, inspired by the Blue Note Lost Grooves comp if you thought it looked familiar. As always there are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

Thanks once again to Charlie for all the work on this. Well this one picks up pretty much on the same vein as my first comp but a bit funkier and mixed up. Where as the 1st one smoothly ran from one genre to another, this one jumps back & forth and is a better listen for it in my opin. You've got Jazz, soul, funk, blues, reggae & ska ... Hope people enjoy!

TRACKLIST (down to one disc from now on)

• 01 Groovin' For Mr G - Richard 'Groove' Holmes
• 02 Afro Harping - Dorothy Ashby
• 03 Got My Boogaloo - Jackie Mittoo
• 04 Fattening Frogs For Snakes - Sonny Boy Williamson
• 05 Brown Bag - Boogaloo Joe Jones
• 06 I Know You Got Soul - Bobby Byrd
• 07 Tic Tac Toe - Candido
• 08 Swing Easy - The Skatalites
• 09 Night & Day - The Maytals
• 10 Backlash Blues - Nina Simone
• 11 Bad Trip - Bo Diddley
• 12 Pounds Of Soul - Betty Bibbs
• 13 What So Never The Dance - Bootsy Collins
• 14 Everybody Dance Now - Soul City
• 15 Everythings Gonna Be Alright - Bobby Womack
• 16 Soul Rebel - Bob Marley & The Wailers
• 17 The New Boss - Slim Smith
• 18 Mickeys Monkey - Smokey & The Miracles
• 19 Tight Money - Rueben Wilson
• 20 Midnight Blue - Kenny Burrell
• 21 Be Thankful For What You Got - William De Vaughn
  

Download link for the zipped file here - as with the previous posts - ENJOY!

Peace! Out!

Charlie Bravo

PS: Divshare download limit almost reached for this month. On 72% at the moment (7th) but will go back to zero on the 16th so if you fail to download, wait till the 16th :O)

BEGV1 - Another Collection Of Classics

And here is Bravo's first offering - 40 tracks of an eclectic nature ranging from the Hammond Jazz of the late 50's/early 60's up to modern day turntablism from the likes of DJ Shadow and Mixmaster Mike, taking in the amphetamine fuelled (nme laugingly named genre) 'new wave of new wave' of These Animal Men, the dirty US garage punk of The Mummies, the acid jazz of Mother Earth, the disco beat of The Jackson 5 - yup! The Jackson 5!, modern day jazz/r&b from The Gene Drayton Unit, the 'indie' brilliance of The Charlatans, the crazy bongo's of 'Little' Jimmy Scott and the amazing voice and guitar of folk hero John Martyn along the way. With hindsight I wouldn't have included so many tracks if I'm honest but I think it flows well and still enjoy listening to it and hope you will too! I don't really know how i picked the tracks, they just sort of came to me, there was no formula or anything, just purely an eclectic mix from my record collection. There are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions.

DISC ONE

• 01 Too Sussed - These Animal Men
  
• 02 Soul Caravan - The Bongolian
• 03 Something For Johnny - Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited
• 04 Sensual Woman - The Herbaliser
  
• 05 Keep Lookin' - The Artwoods
• 06 I've Got A Woman - Jimmy McGriff
  
• 07 Out Of Control - Thee Milkshakes
• 08 Theme From 'Dirty Harry' - JTQ
• 09 Oblighetto - Brother Jack McDuff
• 10 Little Short One Pt 1 - David Holmes
• 11 The Numbers Song - DJ Shadow
• 12 TV200 - Jarvis Humby
• 13 Supa Wyde Laces - Mixmaster Mike
• 14 Stronger Than Dirt - The Mummies
• 15 Monkeyshines - Nick Rossi Set
• 16 Love Is A Four Letter Word - Roy Budd
• 17 Come To The Mushroom - The Prisoners
• 18 Home Is Where The Hatred Is - Gil Scott Heron
• 19 The 5th Quadrant - Mother Earth
• 20 Hum Along And Dance - The Jackson 5
  

DISC TWO

• 01 This Is London - The Times
  
• 02 What Can I Say? - The Jetset
• 03 Atomic Moog 2000 (Bullet Train) - Coldcut
• 04 Berts Apple Crumble - Gene Drayton Unit
• 05 Girl At The Top - Alan Hawkshaw
• 06 Soopasound - The Strawberry Smell07
  
• 07 Ooh La La - The Faces
  
• 08 Feels Like It's Love - Makin' Time
• 09 Sproston Green - The Charlatans
• 10 Step It Up - The Bamboos
• 11 Golden Retriever - Super Furry Animals
• 12 Indian Rope Man - Brian Auger & Julie Driscoll
• 13 In 3's - The Beastie Boys
• 14 Talk Of The Grapevine - Donald Height
• 15 Funky Thing (Pt 1) - Larry Ellis & A Black Hammer
• 16 Coffee Providers - The New Mastersounds
• 17 Easy To Remember - St Germain
• 18 Devil Music - Jeep Beat Collective
• 19 Ob La Di Ob La Da - 'Little' Jimmy Scott
• 20 May You Never - John Martyn
  

Download the zipped file here and most of all ENJOY!

Peace! Out!

Charlie Bravo

Dizzy's Eclectic Grooves Vol.1 (see below)

A little bit of background: So I'd been invited onto this very cool website, Naive & Wise, a small but very friendly place filled with lovely people with great taste in music, and they had a server there where we could share each others music. It certainly wasn't a case of getting music for free you have to understand, because altho' it was free to download from it, it cost me a fortune in opening me up to new music which I then had to get for myself - The Go Team & Little Barrie being 2 of many examples that spring to mind. And not being someone who only likes to take I thought about what I should offer up in return. I'd been putting together some compilations for a group of mates - a soul one, a reggae one, jazz, funk, a Blues/RnB one etc - and picked out a selection from those that I thought would go well together and duly put it up on the N&W Server in a folder called "Dizzy's Eclectic Grooves". I then left it up to the people on there to cherry pick from it what they wanted. With 30 tracks to choose from I thought they could make up their own compilations. But Charlie loved 'em all bless him and even made up some artwork for the CD cover - and so was born the first of what was to become a series!

If you take the time to listen to it from start to finish you'll find it starts with 2 classic 60's RnB tunes that I found on a Mod Reggae comp, then goes into reggae with a soulful edge, a bit of classic reggae funk, onto some jazz-tinged reggae and then suddenly you're into hammond jazz with an RnB feel. The jazz section continues into a funky vibe 'til you find yourself on disc 2 where the funk takes you on a trip to some classic 'Northern' soul before melting into classic 60's RnB, finishing up with 2 beautiful Southern Soul tracks from a Dave Godin comp.

If you do download it I hope firstly that you enjoy it, but secondly that it takes you on a journey of discovery where you want to track down and BUY some of the music of the artists featured. There is not a track on this comp that I didn't buy and as Charlie says, if we don't buy music it will die, with the exception of the bland crap that passes as the mainstream - and what sort of world would that be for the rest of us to live in?

DEGV1 - A Collection Of Classics

Ok, here it is people, the original inspiration for the series. I can't remember the date when this was first compiled by Diz (can you Diz?) but I would imagine it was something like two years ago. As stated below it was originally for Lisa Spindots music forum N&W, I don't think this comp has been shared outside of that forum until now. There are some classic tunes on here and I listened to it only yesterday for the first time in a while and like the songs themselves it stands the test of time! There are print quality covers in the zipped file that you will download, don't bother trying to print the images here on the blog as they are just low-res versions. Got to say I'm not too impressed with the covers for the first two in the series now, they look pretty lame compared with the later versions but I see no point in re-designing them now. It's the music that is important.

DISC ONE

• 01 Laurel Aitken & The Soulmen - Last Night
• 02 Syko And The Caribs - Do the Dog
• 03 Eternals - Queen of the Minstrels
• 04 K.C. White - No, No, No
• 05 Boris Gardner - Melting Pot
• 06 Toots & the Maytals - Funky Kingston
• 07 Jackie Mittoo - Juice Box
• 08 Jimmy Smith - Uh Ruh
• 09 Jimmy McGriff - Dig On It
• 10 Boogaloo Joe Jones - Right On
• 11 Bobbi Humphrey - Lonely Streets, Lonely Woman
  
• 12 Jeremy Steig - In the Beginning
• 13 Gene Harris - Listen Here
• 14 Sonny Cox - The Wailer
• 15 Phil Upchurch - The Way I Feel

DISC TWO

• 01 Reuben Wilson - The Sweet Life
• 02 S.O.U.L. - Burning Spear
• 03 Classic Example - That's Groovy
• 04 Eddie Bo - We're Doing It (Thang)
• 05 Esquires - Get On Up
• 06 The Precisions - If This Is Love (I'd rather be lonely)
  
• 07 Ringleaders - Baby What's Happened to Our Love
• 08 Darrell Banks - Angel Baby
• 09 Sam & Kitty - I've got something good
• 10 ZZ Hill - Gimme Gimme
• 11 Little Johnny Taylor - Zig Zag Lightning
• 12 Skip Easterling - (I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man
• 13 Howlin' Wolf - Killing Floor
• 14 Timmy Willis - Easy as Saying 1-2-3
• 15 The Knight Brothers - Tried So Hard to Please Her

download the zip file here and enjoy!

What's it all about?

Some time ago on a sadly dormant forum devoted to quality music Diz came up with a compilation called 'Dizzy's Eclectic Grooves'. It was a compilation of all the music that Diz was listening to and playing on his DJ decks at the time. It was hosted on the forums server and enjoyed by its members - one of those members being myself. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I thought I'd have a go at compiling one myself.......and so it began.

We started off with double disc compilations but quickly realised that single discs were much easier to compile. I used my limited skills to design CD cover artwork and within 2 years or so we're now both on our fourth compilation and I'm in the beginnings of the fifth.

The compilations were intially destined only for the forum (Naive & Wise) but soon spread to other fora and have gone down well wherever they've been heard.

There is nothing special about the way we compile the tracks that we include, they are just good quality tunes from across genres, speaking for myself I'm not an avid vinyl collector, I just love good music whether it is on vinyl or compact disc. The tunes do lend themselves to the modernist genre which is where both of our influences lie at the end of the day and include soul, rhythm and blues, reggae, ska, funk, punk, garage, jazz and even electronica.

This blog is basically for the purpose of sharing these compilations with the members of the forums we are found on. If you've stumbled across this forum by chance then fine, I hope you enjoy the comps. You can usually find one or both of us on the unofficial paul weller chat forum here

One last thing, and something very important to think about is if you are here for 'free' music then fine but I hope you go out and buy some of the compilations and albums that these tracks are from and support these artists monetarily. There is no such thing as a free lunch and whichever way you look at it, free music is killing music. It's a great way of hearing new tracks/artists you may not have heard before but to make their music these artists and labels need YOUR support by buying their products. In no way do I advocate file sharing or 'stealing' music from them. I just hope you do as I do when hearing a new track/artist and go out and buy what you like. Without people buying music there will be less made and I don't want to think of a world where music isn't made anymore!

Both of our first efforts will follow shortly and over time all four in the series will be here. This blog will only be updated periodically. There are no release dates/schedules etc, it just happens when it happens.

Peace, out!
Charlie Bravo