Vinyl Set at Barely Brothers

Last Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to play a 2.5 hour vinyl set at Barely Brothers Records located in Saint Paul, MN. I went in the day before to dig through their used vinyl & figure out what tunes I wanted to play. In the process I found many old favorites & new tunes that I wanted to share.

I started things off with some smoother jazz funk from the likes of Victor Feldman, Ramsey Lewis, Art Farmer & Brian Auger and then moved things up with some jazzy hip hop from Big L, CSC Funk Band and the like.

From there I picked up the tempo and started playing more funk and soul, peppering in samples and some hip-hop from Young MC, Ugly Duckling, and Roots Manuva.



Then I took a short detour into electornica & jazz with a Mr. Scruff remix of Herbie Hancock and a Saint Germaine classic "So Flute," which was particularly well received.


After this I changed up the pace again with a pair of spoken word pieces "When the Revolution Comes" by the Last Poets into "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised." It was a great honor being able to play a tune by my hero & inspiration Gil Scott-Heron and the song that inspired it back to back for a live audience.

The latter half of the set I played a lot of rare grooves, afro-sounds, and disco, from the likes of Haze, Julius Brockington, Wood, Brass & Steel, Joe Thomas, Willie Bobo, Lafayette Afro Rock Band, Peter King, and Orgone. I was particularly thrilled at the chance to play a cut from Orgone from a promo copy of their upcoming album "Undercover Mixtape Vol. 1" (Pre-Order it here). I had been losing my mind to their cover of the Gwen McCrae classic "All This Love I'm Giving," so it was a particular thrill & joy to play this live.

Losing my mind to Orgone's furious synth funk

All and all it was a fabulous evening, and to top it all off I got a gift card to the store. I decided to grab a few of the more memorable records from my set.

Haze - Self Titled

Glorious, raw, uncut funk from the hometown of the Purple One. Many years before Prince's arrival on the scene, there was a brewing funk & soul scene in Minneapolis & Saint Paul and Haze is a fine example of the musicianship & energy of the scene. Notable also is that Sonny Knight (RIP) joined the group for their second album.

Packed tight with solid grooves, I chose to play A3 "Waiting For The Moment" which has a bugged-out, killer clavinet solo that will knock your socks off. I'm looking forward to digging further into the sounds on this album in the near future!

Deep Street Soul - Come Alive!

This is UK soul/funk group Deep Street Soul's latest 2016 release. I haven't actually gotten a chance to listen to this yet, but I did get to play a song from their first album when I DJ'd.

I really dig Freestyle Records and their first record, and I try to stay caught up on the modern soul scene, so this seemed like an obvious purchase for me at $7.19! I look forward to hearing more of their grooves soon.



Julius Brockington - Sophisticated Funk
This one has been on my radar for quite sometime. I've been familiar with Julius Brockington by way of "This Feeling (Freedom)" which was sampled by Jurassic 5 for "Freedom." While I wasn't as familiar with the material on this album, I've had "Do Your Thing" in my YouTube playlist for almost a year now. It's a chilling, grooving, funked-out cover of an Isaac Hayes piece that appears on the Shaft soundtrack.

Well what I was not aware of was that beyond the funky intro riffs, there was much more hidden within this 8 minute opus. I finished my set with this cut and just let the grooves cook as I started packing up my gear. About 5 minutes in is a drum solo, where the drummer just gives you one breakbeat after another. It really goes to show how important it is to take in the whole song and how a song you thought you knew can still blow your mind. I'm glad I got a chance to play the full 8 minutes and score it as a souvenir from this great experience.

If you'd like to dig a little deeper or want to see what else I'm up to, give me a follow at the links below. Thanks for reading & keep on grooving. Until next time, DJ Blue Funk.

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