Monthly Music List.
While others spend ridiculous amounts of money on festivals to see 90s has-beens these days we do the same in dusty basements full of vinyl and even by our own standards we’ve gone a bit crazy this month. So expect an extra fat list this time.
You can find the previous lists here.
By the way. On August 21st we’ll play at Bonnefooi again. Again all night long but this time with a little twist. All records we play will be for sale. Don’t expect expensive goodies but the challenge we set ourselves is to sell everything at a fixed price. Thinking about 3€ a piece for 7”s and maybe a little higher for 12”s. Or not. We’ll see. Anyway, quite a challenge as we don’t want to lower our standard when it comes to quality of the music we play. But more about that in a few days.
RSD – Dub Pride – ZamZam Sounds
A big fan of this 7” label. Since the early days as a record collector digital reggae / dub has been a faraway friend. During the early nineties, when discovering Zion Train, Sound N Pressure and alike, going to London was one of the few ways to get the records you wanted. Which made it extra special. With the rise of the online game it got easier to get these records, still we kinda drifted away from it. Until recently. The discovery of this fine label triggered that love again and the collection is steadily expanding with ZamZam Sounds as its guide.
Letta Mbulu – Normalizo – Be With Records
One of the many tunes that have become part of our universe that are traceable back to the huge influence Sean P (the disco don not the mc) has had on us. Now finally available, for a reasonable price, due to the reissue of her “In The Music The Village Never Ends” album. Essential stuff.
Freddy Bracker – Daytona Beats – HHV.DE / Crab Boogie
A Belgian beatmaker we’ve been following for years now. Once featured on our RELEASE compilation. Glad to see him steadily progress and get somewhere. This is his first vinyl output (released on cassette first). Saw him perform live a few weeks ago and that sounded tight too.
Quando Quango – Genius – Factory
This has everything we like at Onda Sonora HQ. Hard to classify genre-wise, incredibly funky yet slightly dark, dubby and although full of typical 80s sounds timeless in our book. Found a pristine copy which is always a plus with Factory releases.
Crown Of Thorns – The Treatment (Thorn Mix) – I.R.S. Records
A great, relentless groove tucked away on the b-side of on an otherwise quite bland new wave release. Tip from Lieven Deridder, Belgium’s finest when it comes to all things wave. Finding tracks like these is what we love about digging.
The Specials – Friday Night, Saturday Morning – Two-Tone Records
Finally found The Specials’ greatest and most mature release, the “Ghost Town EP”. Which has next to the title track 2 killer cuts on it. Everything fits on this one. Music, lyrics, artwork, … .
Gloria Jones – Tainted Love – AVI Records
The original of that new wave classics all +30 people have danced to at least once in their lives. Rare 12” release on the label we mainly know for their top Rinder & Lewis releases. Found a sealed one. Afraid to open it, haha.
Fonda Rae – Tuch Me – Rams Horn
Patrick Adams production and an Onda Sonora classic for many years now but always nice to find a 12” copy. Fonda Rae is the voice on so many classics in our box. Solo or as singer for Rainbow Brown, Don Armando’s Second Avenue Rhumba Band, … . And we’re not using that classic stamp lightly here.
Ma Futura feat Hylton Smith – Penny Dun Drop (Bruck Step Mix) – Mainsqueeze
Added a good batch of records to the broken beat collection this month with among them this IG Culture production. Mainsqueeze is one of our all-time favourite labels. Rarely connected so much with a musical genre at the time it was big. Big being relative, of course.
Domu – It’s You – Archive
This is another one of that batch. Made us realize we miss the man’s productions a lot (even though he made a sort of understated comeback). We understood and respected the reasons for his departure from the scene, but it felt like a classic ‘it are the good ones that go too soon” case. We still buy every Domu release we come across. Even if it’s already part of the collection. They are too good to collect dust in 2nd hand bins in shops.
Billy Lo – It’s The Life – Universal Frequency Modulation Recordings
A white label in a 1€ bin we went through with only “Billy Lo” written on it in biro. Happy it was the Billy Lo(ve) we hoped it was. The one that has released one of our favourite EP’s on Sound Signature. This is more solid Detroit house music.
Phil Asher – Ruffness – Strictly 4 Groovers
So happy to bring the man over early September to celebrate our 15th anniversary. This is from the first EP he released under his own name. The “Phlash EP” from 1995. Raw, pumping house. Not far off that complete Phil Asher collection with this and a few other older gems added to it. Maybe an idea for a future Bonnefooi allnighter. Wouldn’t be a problem to pull off a 8 hour set with only music made by Phil. 🙂
“Pretty” Tony – Fix It In The Mix – Music Specialists
80s funky electro is another genre that’s been steadily expanding in our collections. We love tunes like these even if we can’t force them too much onto people without initiating the Moses effect on our dance floors. It’ll get hip one day. This will be an inspiration if one of us ever needs a new moniker.
Kid Creole And The Coconuts – Endicott – Sire
Always have been a big Kid Creole fan even though we mistakenly didn’t play it for a long while out of fear of being labelled as too cheesy. The days we were worried about our reputation are long gone and August Darnell slowly has become recognized as one of the funkiest disco producers around. Few can build a catchy yet relentless grooves like he does.
The Staple Singers – Slippery People – Private I Records
If you ever wanted a version of the Talking Heads classic without the David Byrne’s shouts, this is the one to go for. The build-up after the break is pure gold for your sets. On its way to become a bonafide Onda Sonora classic.