I subscribe to less and less podcasts (not enough time to listen), but there is one I always install on every newly installed iTunes. It’s called the Basic Soul Radio Show, it’s presented by Simon Harrison. Every week Simon selects two hours of old and new funk, soul and electronic music, which makes for a 200MB MP3 every time (upgrade that hard disk!). I have discovered lots of little pearls thanks to it. Some examples from the top of my head:
- Feb 4, 2008: “What it’s all about” – The Sylvers (1973)
- Dec 24, 2007: “I know all the bitches” – Mr Beatnick feat. Ahu (2007)
- Feb 12, 2007: “Drive me Crazy” – Secret Stealth (2007)
Expect to encounter a lot of artists/groups that you’ve never heard of. Some of it you won’t like, some you will adore. Because I wanted a better tool to search the 5+ years of archive, I built a little search engine on
http://tools.forret.com/basicsoul/
that allows me to search for artists, titles and labels. Per found occurrence it allows me to view the full playlist (reformatted from the original page) and if the podcast MP3 is still online, to listen to it (with a SMIL playlist, a M3U playlist or a Flash based MP3 player). I enjoy using it, to see when a track was first played, what other tracks that artist made etc …
Check it out!
PS: Every podcast episode starts with: “Today is the shadow of tomorrow. Today is the present future of yesterday. Yesterday is the shadow of today. The darkness of the past is yesterday. And the light of the past is yesterday“, a piece of lyric from “Shadows of Tomorrow” – Madvillain & Quasimoto.
A couple of weeks ago, at a party in Maastricht, I heard a new version of Rapper’s Delight (Sugarhill Gang), a 15-minute funky jazz version with a kick-ass bass. I went to the DJ booth and turned my head at 45RPM so I could read the name of the artist: “Bentzon“. Back home, some elementary Googling later:
Recent Comments