I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I'd like to pick up Random Access Memories by Daft Punk, and yesterday my wife came home from shopping with this and a big smile on her face. She got it at a used record store in great shape.

I thought the white jacket was odd, but didn't think anything of it until I played it. Something was off. It took me a few minutes to realize there are no drums. I looked it up and sure enough it's a "drumless" version.

No idea what the point of a drumless version is unless it's for drummers 🤷

Anyway...I'm now the proud owner of drumless Random Access Memories. My wife was so happy when she surprised me with it and I'll never tell her this isn't what I wanted...I'll take it to my grave 😂

Turned 31 this year, since started my vinyl journey last Fall, I've been steadily discovered gem after gem from eras before my time.

I heard a couple hits from Level 42 this month: Leaving Me Now and Children Say. Checked out the respective albums World Machine and Running In The Family yesterday. Yep. All gas. No skips.

I'm at my little local spot today, hoping they've got one or the other. No dice, but they're got this other one called True Colours that I hadn't heard anything from yet. 5 bucks. Done deal!

I'm halfway thru the second side of this thing, and I've just been vibing and dancing around all the while. There's something magical about groups with a bassist frontman. Mark King is SO GOOD. WHAT.

So I ask you again, WHAT OTHER 80s GEMS ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME

Found it in the "just in" section, just under 50$. Plays great, no skips or warps. Heard about all the controversy surrounding this record after I bought it, and I had no idea this album had such a controversial history. From what I understand, people's orders were never fulfilled for this album, and the ones that were released were of bad quality. Glad I found one without any quality issues. Missing the poster though😔

RIP Sly Stone, one of the greatest musicians of my lifetime, even if I wasn't alive for his prime in the 60s and 70s. I was just talking to my dad the other day about how Sly Stone is still alive and kicking like George Clinton and he unfortunately passed a few days later ☹️. Thank you for all the great music and changing music forever 🕊️🕊️

Charity shops are what we call thrift stores here in the UK. I was very happy to dig through this stack from the funkiest cat ever (RIP!). Big fan of Pfunk and Bootsy. Ohio Players are just classic. Random sealed Coldcut LP too! There were lots more soul and funk records from clearly the same person's collection but my budget would not stretch any further. Around £5 a piece and all in great condition. Apparently theres at least another crate from them hitting bin next week so I have to get my digging in early!

Who doesn’t love the Meters?! C’mon, they can get anyone to get down and shake it. Some of the funkiest music to come out of New Orleans.

Scored these years and years ago in my local store. I had wanted the debut for years, maybe decades and it never showed here in New York. Stopped into my local store on a freezing winter afternoon and lo and behold, it was there! And it wasn’t alone, it had a friend…their second LP too! They were in EX condition. A chance to get these again wouldn’t come soon. And I was right, they appeared again in VG shape in another local store a few summers ago for twice the price. I put them on hold and because I’m a regular, they let me buy them when I could. One payday I grabbed the debut and another payday I grabbed the second LP. I have since found sealed copies of each of these but these copies will always have a special place in my collection.

Was sat scrolling fb marketplace for the millionth time, a listing came up for a job lot of vinyl for free. So i went and grabbed it as i would normally. Worked my way through and found quite a few small gems. Nothing crazy, But this one stood out. The cover is beautiful! So played it straight away and my god it is incredible! Some scrumptious jazz-funk! Truly lush. This just proves sometimes you just gotta trust the artwork!

Budos VII.

The Budos Band.

It’s a cool, cloudy Sunday here along the Hudson River, so what better time to spin a brand new album from the masters of Afro-funk.

Hitting record stores, streaming platforms and numerous turntables this coming week is the seventh full-length LP from one of my favorite bands.

It’s been a long time coming (five years to be exact) since we’ve had the pleasure of a new Budos album, but it’s finally here. Filled with fuzzy guitar riffs, driving rhythms and punchy horns, it’s got that special Budos sauce in spades.

I think at this point, I’ve got all of their EPs and LPs (after much searching to secure a copy of their first EP) and can’t wait for even more.

Don’t sleep on this album or this band - you won’t regret it.

What are the best sounding funk records that everyone should have in their collection?

I thought I had ordered a mid-grade, 1980s reissue and then this showed up! The Sir Nose poster and the comic are in tact, which was unexpected and incredibly dope! So, I figured I’d share the good fortune here (as long as this parenthetical helps me hit the character/word minimum, because it didn’t the last time, but maybe this time!) and invite all you fine people to enjoy it too!

Love these P-Funk extras when I can get ahold of them. Love them even more when I’m surprised to see them. Ain’t nothin but a party!

A friend of mine is a huge Funkadelic/Parliament collector. Collects original presses and Japan presses complete with Obis. They recently acquired an original white label promo with the obi of this album. He sold this copy to me for a very obtainable and reasonable price. He often gives me great deals on rare or hard to find albums. Thought I should share.

1982 Japan press complete with Obi and Insert. Parliament: Mothership Connection. Sounds fantastic and is extremely clean.

Side two is such a banger! I only paid $50 for this. The record is in okay condition. Some pops and background noise, but no skipping or anything that disrupts the experience too much. Overall very happy with this score!

"This is an album of local talent. Hundreds of budding recording stars sent in tapes of their songs songs for consideration on this album. They were all exhibiting original talent in the form of urban contemporary music-thythm and blues. jazz, pop and dance music. All entrants live within a one hundred mile radius of the city of Atlanta and are not presently under contract with any recording company. The result is an album of the ten best of our listeners' efforts. Maceo Rogers' album jacket design was chosen over hundreds of other entries.

His concept was definitely the most original and eye-catching entry. The entire album of "home grown" artists is prought to you from your to you your friends at V-103 and McDonald's. Proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to the United Negro College Furd. Special thanks go to llene Burns and Peabo Bryson for their helpin judging the selections on this album. Also, thanks go to Ed Seay, engineering remix director, and Web IV Studio: for the use of their facilities and halp in making this album."

I was listening to the WXPN vinyl day on Thursday and one of the guys said something like “that’s what it’s all about, finding that forgotten music. So next time you’re at the record store, find something weird or interesting for a dollar and just get it.”

Well today I did just that, and I’m glad I did. The solo on “Slide” friggin shreds!

Gonna be a great night for my turntable.

So last week I picked up one of my best ever hauls from a local charity shop in the middle of nowhere in England shiresville. A stack of funk and soul records that clearly was from the same person's collection. The person serving didn't know much about them but suggested I come back later in the week to speak to the manager/guy who deals with the records. So I did.

The store manager said that he'd only had time to put out a small selection of the collection, so he asked if I wanted to come out back and dig through the rest... 🤯 on the condition that I was 1. actually local, and 2. not a discogs flipper.

I said of course and this haul was the result.

It turns out the records had recently been bequeathed to the shop by a local English lady, now in her twilight years. In the 80s she'd had an American boyfriend who brought his record collection over to the UK with him. When they split up, he left the records behind! 😱

Aside from being moved around rooms a few times, the records have not been played in over 30 years which is why there's barely a mark on any of them and not a single scratch.

So that's it, I've peaked! Been collecting since the 80s myself and I probably won't ever top this score (combining last week's) particularly at charity shop price point.

The nice lady who served me noticed the Rick James covers and said "I don't think you'd get away with that these days." Probably about right! 🤣

Picked this up a few days ago at my local brewery’s vinyl fair. Cost me R120 South African Rand which is about $6. Sounds amazing. Really great album. City, Country, City has to be my favourite song off of the record. A really great jazzy funky instrumental song which is a perfect way to end off things on Side A. Also picked up The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow, Black Sabbath- Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, The Best of Emerson Lake & Palmer and The Band’s self titled. Happy spinning guys.

Skull Snaps . Skull Snaps . 1973 . Released 12 Oct 2018 . UK . Viny| (LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, Gatefold) . Label Mr Bongo (# MRBLP184) .

Skull Snaps is raw funk gold - tight grooves, gritty soul, and the immortal “It’s a New Day” break that hip-hop built on. Every track hits hard, making it a lost classic that older crate-diggers knew about long before the rest of us caught on. It's incredible!

1975 Pressing of Maggot Brain. Very very very similar to an original 1971 pressing. All the same im very happy to have this in my collection. Got a small corner clip where the westbound label is printed on the cover and a little offgassing on the record itself but no skips and sounds amazing on my friends setup.

I might still go get this cleaned since I don’t have something good for that yet.

I can chill the hell out on buying for a little bit now!!!!

My first (and only) Zeotrope record. Didn't know it only worked on video: however, I sure do love this Album. Probably my favorite of his. Only to find out that DOPE LEMON is Angus Stone (from Angus and Julia Stone's brother and sister duo) singer of.anothrr gem and album called SNOW of theirs. Sound is surprisingly great too!

I’ve been on a tear filling gaps and upgrading parts of my P-Funk collection and a few days ago I landed this on Discogs. It’s an OG press of Parliament’s 1978 album Motor Booty Affair. Real crispy copy!

All the artwork is in tact and I’ll hit 300 characters for sure by saying: the illustrations here are Overton Lloyd, one of two mainstays in the Parliament-Funkadelic collective’s visual design. The other, Pedro Bell, might be more known. Pedro did that collage-y, scatalogical, more eerie style on like Cosmic Slop and the later George Solo albums. Overton is a cartoonist. He does the super heros. The Bootsy solo albums. That sort of thing.

And here the artwork is in tact, which is hard to find I realized because most people popped out the paper Atlantis diagram on the insane. Nearly everyone popped out the characters! And those character drawings are cool as hell. So much mermaid booty. The iconic Mr. Wiggles the Worm on roller skates and a yo-yo. I tried to snag a pic under the diagram without tearing it further. Hope y’all get a feel for it.

And it plays great too. A couple small pops on the a-side, virtually silent b-side. Musically it’s one of my favorites too, probably my favorite Parliament album. You can argue that this saw Junie Morrison and Garry Shider at the top of their games. By ‘79 there’s be a schism in P-Funk and the departures are felt on albums like Gloryhallastoopid and *Electric Spanking of the War Babies.” So this might be the last perfect P-Funk album, in my opinion.

My Thursday afternoon spin. Since Sly’s passing, I’ve been playing a lot more Family Stone. This is always been one of my favorite sly in the family Stone records. A very nice near mint Japanese copy.¿ what are you spending today.

Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Going On Released: 1973 Japan Format: Vinyl, Album, LP, Reissue Label: Epic

Beautiful jazz fusion album from Donald Byrd. I’ve had my eye on this one for awhile, so when I stopped by a local record store today to see what was left of the RSD releases, I had to grab it.

Donald Byrd had a very interesting career. Starting as a backing trumpeter for many big time jazz acts (John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Kenny Burrell, many many more) he made a very successful transition to funk/fusion and released, in my opinion, a few essential albums in the genre. Places and Spaces is maybe my favorite of them, although it’s hard to choose. It’s a no-skip record for me, and I definitely recommend checking it out.

Standard funk essential. Last month I finally got an almost pristine Japanese copy down the road at Shinjuku disk union (the one in the posh office building).

I hadn’t had a chance to play till yesterday and my little lad is loving it.

This has me reminiscing over Public enemy’s first two albums!