DJ Crook, DJ Hailey, and I are doing a tuesday night weekly party here in Sacramento at the Press Club (21st & P streets). come party with us to quality 80s underground classics.
FFFreak – TUESDAYS
September 22nd, 2011 by D-tonesupdate
July 7th, 2011 by D-toneshey guys, thank you for reading and digging classic quality tunes with me on laser funk. This site will be on hiatus for an indefinite amount of time. I’ve been asked to contribute to Beat Electric, so I’ll be posting plenty of jams on there until I run out of new records to share. let’s hope that never happens.
the site here will stay up until November 2011 at least. Megatron Man and others may want to share some mixes here, so we may keep it going after that. Just make sure you grab any tracks you want by November.
Everybody Get Off
May 23rd, 2011 by D-tones
This one should be an obvious pull for any disco funk fan, Patrick Adams production on Prelude. It’s a shame there isn’t an instrumental or dub version out there, if anyone is holding please let me know. Fortunately the long vocal version has a healthy breakdown and Adams’ trademark spacey synth floating throughout. Listen for the perfect touch of the vocalist saying “I like this part” at the beginning of the breakdown.
Captain Sky
May 23rd, 2011 by D-tones
Captain Sky is the alter ego of Chicago bassist Darryl Cameron. His records have a definite P-funk influence which is immediately apparent in his superhero/scifi comic book cover art. Some of his tunes sound more George Clinton style, though in my opinion his disco material is a bit stronger. His 2nd LP Pop Goes The Captain is probably his best work. Here is my favorite track from the album.
Reachin’ Out
May 23rd, 2011 by D-tones
Here is a great disco track from Lee Moore, who had some production chops and excellent taste but unfortunately only released a few tracks. Reachin’ Out has clean arrangement with minimal guitar and horn parts that all stay in their place and don’t muck up the song. Stay with it for the epic synth solo that starts about halfway into the song.
shine your light
May 13th, 2011 by D-tones
This tune by the Graingers has the most infectious bass line and is one of my favorite boogie funk jams. The Grainger brothers also worked with Pockets before recording on their own. As far as I know this was the only thing they released, but if anyone has some demo tapes or an unreleased album of Graingers material please let me know.
baby be mine
April 28th, 2011 by D-tones
Here’s a nice lower tempo jam released Smokin’ records, a subsidiary of classic New York hip hop and electro label Tuff City. This tune has a beautiful smooth vocal delivery asking a girl to come home together after a night at the disco. Crisp, minimal production from David Reeves aka Davy DMX who gave us other classics like “One For The Treble”.
it must be magic
April 13th, 2011 by D-tones
Heat records was a Montage subsidiary electro/soul label active in the ’80s. Both labels released a slew of killer boogie and electro funk before closing after about ten years of activity. Montage released some late career LPs from long standing groups like Mandrill and Shotgun with an updated electro sound. Here’s a more obscure track from a group called Ivy which featured Sharon Jones on vocals. This song really does it for me with simple and effective production, loose synth bass line, and killer female vocals.
Yvonne Gage
April 2nd, 2011 by D-tones
Yvonne Gage is an excellent soul vocalist from Chicago. Her only LP on Chycago International is pretty ahead of its time in 1983 with a garage and house sound featuring minimal drum machine patterns and sparse synths. “Respect My Mind” is my favorite on her LP, its a bit of a guilty pleasure and loses some steam with the chorus and bridge but is still a solid jam. Her music was more popular in the European dance scene at the time, as far as I can tell my favorite tune of hers “lover of my dreams” never had a U.S. pressing.
Alfonzo
March 24th, 2011 by D-tones
Here’s a tight boogie track from Alfonzo Jones released out of Los Angeles in 1982. Alfonzo has a very similar delivery to another guy who made records in L.A. in the 80s. I think it is impressive how well Alfonzo pulls off the M.J. voice right down to the little vocal inflections. If you’re still mourning the death of the king of pop its worth picking up Alfonzo’s only LP on Larc Records, there are a couple more solid jams on the record. Just close your eyes and pretend you’re listening to an unreleased Michael album.