TRY IT, LIKE IT, THESE RAPTURES OF THE DEEP
posted by O.W.
Jewel Bass: I Tried It & I Liked It b/w Richard Stoute: What Bag I'm In (snippets)
From 7" single (Sticky Records, 2009)
HE3 Project: Rapture of the Deep b/w Funk Punk (snippets)
From 7" single (Family Groove, 2009)
For those of you rockin' turntables, we have a special 7" giveaway - two new reissues. One is for a great slice of Southern funky soul by Jewel Bass, described as, "a backing singer...acknowledged as 'Mississippi's most recorded voice.'" Well, on this one, she gets to step out in front...on a Malaco single that is apparently among that legendary label's rarest. You can hear the obvious influence of "Mr. Big Stuff" (like that Jean Knight classic, Wardell Quezergue was behind the production) but it's not a fake cover; it's an incredibly snappy bit of New Orleans funk that holds its own. Great, great wtuff. (Flipside has a bit of island funk for you from Richard Stoute).
From Family Groove Records, right here in L.A., it's the first single off the HE3 Project, an anthology that highlights a tiny, private studio in the Bay Area, most of whose records were never released - but thankfully, whose tapes were preserved. This is a really remarkable find; I've gotten to hear several of the songs from that archive and it's an extraordinary mesh of jazz, psych, funk, soul, and whatever else was swirling around San Francisco's heady musical mix in the 1970s. "Funk Punk" sounds like a lost Eugene McDaniels' song off the Headless Heroes album; it has that same, eclectic vibe and vocal touch. The song neither sounds like conventional funk nor punk, but nonetheless, it's an absolute gem of a tune. "Rapture of the Deep" is actually the more purely funky of the two; a jazz instrumental that sounds like something Lonnie Hewitt might have recorded with the San Francisco TKOs. This single is limited to only 100 copies; buy 'em now before they're gone!)
For one lucky Soul Sides reader, you'll win both. Just ID the two snippets recorded here (clues to what they are can be found above) and email your guess to soulsides AT gmail.com, subject "7-inch giveaway." Good luck!
Update: I'll give people until the end of tonight (8/31) to submit their answers and after that, I'll pick a winner at random from all correct answers.
