Mix-Tape: April ‘08

In any place where you can get a bottle of Ricard for ten bucks and a brick of Davidoffs for $1.50, there are few excuses for not listening to Serge Gainsbourg records — least of all taste. So here he is in full Humbert Humbert mode, sucking on Gauloises, assaulting adolescents and laying down seedy basslines. To dilute, as it were, Gainsbourg’s concentrate of bohemian sleaze, I’ve lodged him between fifteen great tracks, including one from urban girl-band Klymaxx — with state-of-the-’80s Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis production — and a couple cuts from Do You Want More?!!!??! , an old Roots album that I discovered in Saigon, inside a sleeve that was supposed to contain a copy of Miles Davis’ 1964 live LP Four & More . I’ve also included some early fusion, a much-maligned genre, and one that I hope these lean, funky inclusions by Jaco Pastorius and Herbie Hancock will go some way to redeeming. (Listen out for Herbie’s Steinway solo around the 6′30" mark of ‘Hidden Shadows’).

This is the last mix-tape I’ll do for the time being: my headphones are busted and iTunes is in need of an intravenous transfusion of bad-ass. Any tips? Send them my way.

01 Lamb - Merge - Lamb (1997)
02 Serge Gainsbourg - En Melody - Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971)
03 The Roots - Distortion To Static - Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995)
04 The Beastie Boys - Car Thief - Paul’s Boutique (1989)
05 The Brothers Johnson - Thunder Thumbs & Lightnin’ Licks - Look Out For #1 (1973)
06 Minnie Riperton - Every Time He Comes Around - Perfect Angel (1974)
07 Jurassic 5 - Back 4 You - Feedback (2006)
08 Public Enemy - Security Of The First World - It Takes A Nation Of Millions… (1989)
09 Klymaxx - Meeting In The Ladies Room - 20th Century Masters (1984)
10 Jay-Z - Roc Boys (And The Winner Is)… - American Gangster (2007)
11 Jaco Pastorius - Come On, Come Over - Jaco Pastorius (1976)
12 Jah Wobble’s Invaders Of The Heart - Lam Saravane Dub - I Could Have Been A Contender (2000)
13 Herbie Hancock - Hidden Shadows - Sextant (1973)
14 The Roots - Proceed - Do You Want More?!!!??! (1995)
15 Quincy Jones - Summer In The City - Space Junk 2001 (2001)
16 Prince - Adore - Sign ‘O’ The Times (1987)

~ by Sebastian Strangio on April 14, 2008.