I don't mind telling you that this is a bit of a special moment.
I've been waiting for volume 26 of Ultimate Breaks & Beats for something like 18 years.
This is the 'lost' 26th edition of the legendary breakbeat series of albums from Street Beat Records and contains that same dusty funk that you know and love right down to the Kev Harris artwork and Louis Flores edits.
We begin with the rather lyrically disturbing Joe Tex track "You Said A Bad Word" in which he dubiously remarks to a girl that he won't tell her mother about her cursing if "you do what I tell you" whilst simultaneously sniggering.
You'll be singing "Su-per...Casanova...naaaa, na, na, na, na, na, na", when you hear it. Fact.
Moving quickly on is a nice old school break, "Ever Ready" by Johnnie Taylor and then a great break I never even knew existed. I wasn't even aware that Herbie Luv Bug had gone digging in search of inspiration for Salt N Peppa's "Push It". Well listen to "Keep On Pushing" by Coal Kitchen and you'll hear for yourself.
The epic "The Jam" is a slab of psychedelic sloppy funk from the p-funk-ish Graham Central Station. I remember finding this at a car boot some years ago and hearing the MARRS break for the first time. 'Twas mindblowing I tells ya.
Those yearning for the days of the Soul II Soul massive will dance in glee for it was this track that introduced that famous beat (05.09s) which was soon sadly plundered by everyone with an Akai sampler back in the early 90's (Jimmy Nail, I'm looking at you).
Troublefunk is the sort of band that every hip hop dj will have at least one of their records in their box. And we have a beauty here in the form of "Let's Get Small" with it's monster use of percussion. Eagerly used by such champs as KRS-ONE, Coldcut, LL Cool J and a staple in Kid Capri's repertoire.
Now apparently an original 7" copy of "Sexy Coffee Pot" by Tony Alvon & The Belairs goes for a price so high that only DJ Shadow and Keb Darge can fork out the cash for it without their bank manager shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
The title comes from the story that a coffee pot was the inspiration for the world's first webcam. The coffee pot was located in the so-called Trojan Room within the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The webcam was created to help people working in other parts of the building avoid pointless trips to the coffee room by providing, on the user's desktop computer, a live 128×128 grayscale picture of the state of the coffee pot.
It's true. The internet never lies y'all.
However why anyone would deem a coffee pot to be 'sexy' is beyond me. Although on second thoughts the Computer Laboratory probably consisted of mainly blokes with bad hair and zits and the only offering of females would be Beryl the cleaning lady.
And so to end this volume is probably my pick of a very good bunch. Hank Carbo's "Hot Pants Part 2" is a mid-tempo shigger-fragger which you'll know instantly as being 'that Big Daddy Kane break '. Marley Marl is a frickin genius.
It's worth remembering that this album was originally produced in 1991 in the midst of hip hop's Golden Age™ so a lot if not most of the subsequent tracks in which these breaks were used are some of hip hop's greatest moments.
A.
1. Joe Tex - You Said A Bad Word
2. Johnny Taylor - Ever Ready
3. Coalkitchen - Keep On Pushing
4. Graham Central Station - The Jam (Remixed)
B.
1. Trouble Funk - Lets Get Small
2. Tony Alvon - Sexy Coffee Pot
3. Hank Carbo - Hot Pants (part 2) (Remixed)
Breakbeat Lenny R.I.P.
Check here for more info about the individual editions and short history of UBB.
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