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A quick tribute to Blondie on an important anniversary, then we get into our latest Sampled & AMPED Thursday with great new tunes from the funk punk soul rock realms.
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Apr 28, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Blondie – Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song)
Ghost Funk Orchestra feat Ben Pirani – Can’t Get Out Your Own Way (remix)
Florencia Andrada – Dueños Del Terror
Carlton Jumel Smith feat Cold Diamond & Mink – Devoted To You
Kraak & Smaak feat Izo FitzRoy – Sweet Time (Yuksek remix)
Darius feat Devin Tracy – EASE YOUR MIND
Daniel Caesar feat BADBADNOTGOOD – Please Do Not Lean
Jazzanova – Joy Road
BATTS feat Sharon Van Etten – Blue
Lydia Persaud – I Got You
Jazz Is Dead – The Avenues
Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – Excuse-O (edit)
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight after another rather overcast but pleasant enough spring day, and it’s time to let go with the latest edition of our Sampled & AMPED Thursday night, valenced into the matrix of history as April 28, 2022. This is Danno, the man with the funk punk soul rock plan, emanating the naughty and the nice enough from studio 2 in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? As usual lots to do in our fourth chapter funk out for this week, with great new cuts to taste test in both hours tonight as Dan Lloyd smashes things in for our AMPED 2nd hour after we hit 9 bells on the air. First hour our funk & soul showcase has a lot to do and listen to with Daniel Caesar, Jazzanova, and Ghost Funk Orchestra headlining the buffet, and Dan Lloyd has what he describes as a surprisingly good week of new rock to showcase as well for parts 3 & 4. But literally all of that is for later, as right now we nerd out on the history and liner notes with our TIGHT (or) feature for tonight, as it was on this date that Blondie’s biggest ever single hit #1 on this date in 1979, but we’ll go back to 75 to peep the earlier iteration of the so-called disco song. THIS is The Drop.
Blondie – Once I Had A Love (AKA The Disco Song)
The Drop has lit the wick and watched the stuff fly into the atmosphere with the opening salvo for our Sampled & AMPED Thursday night rumpus room. Danno here doing the funky stuff for hour 1, and the punky stuff arrives later with Gwangju’s rock god Dan Lloyd doing the honors for our AMPED feature.
That was our TIGHT (or) feature for tonight, the demo iteration of what later became heart of glass by Blondie. Now, the latter peak disco hit went to #1 on this date in 1979, which was interesting for several reasons, one of them being the tune was deemed a sellout by Blondie’s hardcore new wave fans, with disco being the dominant genre at the time and kind of passe if we’re being honest which we try to do here on the air.
Heart of Glass was definitely Blondie’s biggest tune and remains so, but you know we like our deeper cuts here on The Drop so we had to go with the 1975 demo version of the song there, which was initially labeled as Once I Had A Love AKA The Disco Song, recorded in 1975 but not released until far later in 2001 when the deluxe version of the 1977 album Plastic Letters was released for fans and collectors.
Interestingly, Debbie Harry in an interview later was saying The Disco Song is what the band always called the song for shorthand, as even with that early iteration was different from anything they’d done previously. Gotta love the reggae and funk hybrid sound on that demo. Amazing look in.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
Alright, so that’s out of the way for today as one might say, and thus we get to the new biz for this week. On deck is Seth Applebaum and Ghost Funk Orchestra with an old new cut, then it’s our Argentine friend in Florencia Andrada and up to NYC via Finland with Carlton Jumel Smith. We’ll explain all of that seeming confusion after the madness subsides but for now THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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The Drop returns to the microphone which we did not trade the bluesmobile for on this Sampled funk & soul first hour. Dan Lloyd and the weekly rock madness that we call AMPED is also locked and loaded for hour 2 this evening. For right now, we just got the funk rolling out in that last block, so let’s get to it...
Ghost Funk Orchestra feat Ben Pirani – Can’t Get Out Your Own Way (remix) (…this is actually a new version of a tune that Seth Applebaum and company amazingly recorded remotely at the heights of pandemic lockdown in 2020, calling themselves the Quarantine Orchestra. This one sees Colemine Karma Chief labelmate Ben Pirani do the vocal honors, just released as a standalone this week.)
Florencia Andrada – Dueños Del Terror (…newly signed to a new label, the Buenos Aires-based singer-songwriter recorded this tune also in the depths of the pandemic. The song discusses the inevitability of the most privileged people complaining the most and totally lacking empathy during lockdown. The song by the way means Owners of Terror if you do not habla the españolish.)
Carlton Jumel Smith feat Cold Diamond & Mink – Devoted To You (…this is the latest our friend in NYC, released digitally last week and out on vinyl via Timmion Records May 6. The 7” single will feature the instrumental of that tune from Helsinki-based Cold Diamond & Mink, who also did the arrangements on Bobby Oroza’s upcoming LP.)
So the clock keeps ticking but we got a couple more joints to let off the leash to run around in the atmosphere, with Kraak and Smaak along with the UK-based Izo FitzRoy featuring on the Yuksek remix of Sweet Time, and then we have France’s Darius teaming up with Devin Tracy on vox with our final joint called EASE YOUR MIND, which will slide us to the jump and our 2nd stanza this evening. This is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
Kraak & Smaak feat Izo FitzRoy – Sweet Time (Yuksek remix)
Darius feat Devin Tracy – EASE YOUR MIND
II
Into the 2nd quarter of our nightly radiological orchestra for this evening, and we’ve made sure to tamp the heat down a good bit as we get extra swervy as we commence the stretch towards halftime. Danno here doing the funk & soul thing we call Sampled here on Thursday night, and Dan Lloyd begins soundbombing on the rock tip starting in part 3 tonight later on. As to what opened the 2nd can right there, let’s get to the details...
Daniel Caesar feat BADBADNOTGOOD – Please Do Not Lean (…honestly, I’ve been wondering when this team-up would inevitably happen with these two Toronto-based acts. This tune was introduced last weekend live at Coachella, and Caesar notes that this lush tune represents the next chapter in his career, so stay tuned as I’m sure millions will.)
Jazzanova – Joy Road (…the new reimagined edition of Strata Records The Sound of Detroit is out as of Friday, with the German collective reworking the original tunes featured on DJ Amir’s mix compilation of old school Detroit soul. Do check either in full, both are lovely.)
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
Moving down the road towards halftime tonight, we got three more cuts to taste test next, with BATTS and Sharon Van Etten teaming up on the next cut to be followed by another strong pair of tunes from Lydia Persaud and Jazz Is Dead in that order, and we’ll discuss after the discus trio flies and dies. This is The Drop on your funk & soul Thursday.
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Back to it here on The Drop once again as we reach towards the first half’s terminus. Danno here, keeping the cue in check on our funk & soul first hour as Dan Lloyd swings his mighty bat warming up for our AMPED chaos which comes at you and maybe for you momentarily. For that last block of joints, let’s run it down right now…
BATTS feat Sharon Van Etten - Blue (…for those unfamiliar Tanya Batt is the artist behind BATTS, and this is the first single released since 2020 for the Melbourne-based singer-songwriter. And what a return, with Sharon Van Etten joining on the duet as the world prepares for the release of Van Etten’s latest LP We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, which comes out May 6 and has zero singles releasing prior to the album drop.)
Lydia Persaud – I Got You (…just out this past Friday is the artist’s new album Moody31. This tune actually released at the tail end of March, but we gotta say big up to the artist and label Next Door Records on this release. Do check this record.)
Jazz Is Dead – The Avenues (…after a monumental 10th release from the LA-based record label with guests galore on the LP, Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Adrian Younge have decided to forego a guest and do the 11th LP on their own. The Avenues is the first single to the record, which drops in full on May 13.)
Alright, so the halftime buzzer approaches but we got some real estate, so we’ll get in some Fela to finish the hour. This is the new remastered and edited version of Excuse-O, which is the title track to their 1975 LP. THIS is The Drop and that is halftime.
Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 – Excuse-O (edit)
III & IV AMPED
Viagra Boys – Ain’t No Thief
Cave In – Blood Spiller
Bloc Party – If We Get Caught
Ty Segall – Hello, Hi
Editors – Heart Attack
Beach Rats – Rat Beat
Pulley – Golden Life
Snuff – Hard Times
Moreish Idols – Speedboat
Mogwai – Boltfor
Journey – You Got the Best of Me
Viagra Boys – Ain’t No Thief
At the beginning of 2021, the bug-eyed Swedish post-punk outfit Viagra Boys returned with their sophomore album Welfare Jazz. When I interviewed frontman Sebastian Murphy at the time, he alluded to the fact that they already had another album pretty much ready to go. While it mutated a bit from that point, that album is now on its way. Viagra Boys’ third album is called Cave World, and it’s out in July.
After completing what could’ve been their third collection, the band let it all “marinate for a while” and then decided to re-record everything, resulting in an album that bears some of the original music but otherwise transformed. Murphy ended up writing about evolution and, as a press release puts it, “the misconception… that humanity is moving forward.” “I just wrote down, ‘Who is the true ape?'” he explained in a statement. “People look down at apes as primitive life forms, but we’re just this horrible, lazy society killing each other and starting wars, while they’re able to love and feel. Does that make them the true ape or us?”
Along with the announcement, the band has also shared lead single “Ain’t No Thief,” which they’d debuted live on recent tour dates. It comes with a video directed by SNASK, featuring Murphy as an Evangelical preacher.
Cave In – Blood Spiller
The Boston band Cave In are releasing a new album, Heavy Pendulum, next month (5/20). It’s their first since their founding bassist Caleb Scofield died in a car crash in 2018. The band has shared “New Reality” and “Blinded In A Blaze” from it so far, and today they’re back with another single, “Blood Spiller.”
“If you laid out the timeline for 2020 like a recipe, it might look something like this: global pandemic + lockdowns + worldwide protests over the wrongful death of George Floyd + election year = cocktail for end times,” the band’s Stephen Brodsky said in a statement. “Somewhere in that concoction, we found ingredients for a new Cave In album. “Blood Spiller” is the sound of us swallowing it, getting ripped on the horrors within, and coming down to reflect on it through song.”
Bloc Party – If We Get Caught
New album Alpha Games comes out this week. This is the fourth (and probably best) of the singles released in the lead up to the full length coming out, which isn’t saying much to be honest. Bloc Party’s comeback sounds a lot like a rehash of breakthrough debut Silent Alarm but with the rough edges sanded down, which makes the material easier to digest but at the same time far less exciting.
Ty Segall – Hello, Hi
Human psych-rock factory Ty Segall isn’t the type to sit still for long. Last summer, Segall released his surprise LP Harmonizer. Earlier this year, he followed that LP with his soundtrack for the documentary Whirlybird. And now Segall has announced plays to drop a whole new LP on the world this summer, and he’s shared its absolute rocker of a first single.
Segall’s next album is called Hello, Hi, and he recorded most of it at home by himself. The LP’s lead-single title track is a revved-up riff-stomper with a stuttering falsetto chorus. Ty Segall has been through so many different variations on his sound over the years that the phrase “Ty Segall song” could describe just about anything, but “Hello, Hi” still really sounds like a Ty Segall song. The song has an all-business sense of fuzzed-up rock overdrive, but Segall’s playful vocal harmonies give it a sense of deep weirdness that stands out.
Editors – Heart Attack
Returning with their first new music since 2019, Editors are back with ‘Heart Attack’, alongside the news that Ivor Novello winning composer and producer Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, has officially joined the band.
Speaking about the new track, Tom Smith says, “Heart Attack is a song of obsession, about losing yourself in someone, a love song, a morbid love song.”
Accompanied by an A.I.-generated new vid created by director and visual artist Felix Geen, Felix says, “Typically when I’m making a music video I try to tune myself into the song and find the visual that resonates the loudest. More recently I’ve been working with AI generated art in my videos. It is a relatively new technology but its development is accelerating all the time. The full potential for it to completely revolutionise the visual creation process is yet to be seen. I currently think of working with the AI as a collaboration with a mad auteur who’s taken too much LSD. It is certainly quite interesting to be taken on a psychedelic journey by a computer who’s seen too much.”
Beach Rats – Rat Beat
Beach Rats – featuring members of the Bouncing Souls, Bad Religion and Lifetime – have just announced details of their debut album, Rat Beat.
The punk rock supergroup are comprised of Ari Katz (vocals), Pete Steinkopf (guitar), Bryan Keinlen (bass), Brian Baker (guitar) and Danny Windas (drums), and after launching with an EP back in 2018, have now officially gotten going thanks to extended time off (for obvious reasons), with their debut full-length. "We’d go down in the basement, put on masks, open the windows and we could play – within CDC guidelines!" explains Brian. "We couldn’t go to dinner at each other’s houses but we could practice."
Meanwhile, Bryan teases of what's to come from the band's upcoming record – which is due out on July 29 via Epitaph: "You’re gonna get authentic punk and hardcore from Beach Rats because we are all from the ’80s. It’s literally taking it back to some of our biggest influences like Negative Approach and Poison Idea. And, of course, Minor Threat.”
Pulley – Golden Life
Cali skate punk vets Pulley will release a new album, The Golden Life, on May 13 via SBÄM Records (pre-order), and we're premiering the lyric video for the lead single/title track. As this song proves, they've still got the same knack for churning out fast-paced, melodic punk that they had on their classic '90s records. If you miss the glory days of Punk-O-Rama, these lifers still scratch the itch.
Frontman (and former Major League Baseball pitcher) Scott Radinsky had this to say about the new music:
Golden life,
Observing a generation of kids who have seemingly been robbed of an experience. Life without ease of access to good, and/or bad. Much of what they have seen in the world has been negative, unimaginable terrorist acts, war and violence, a division of people. In regards to music, our generation really had to earn it if we wanted to get a proper listen or visual. Technology, although having its good aspects, has removed an experience that offered a deeper appreciation of life.
Snuff – Hard Times
Veteran London punk band Snuff released their new album Crepuscolo Dorato Della Bruschetta Borsetta Calzetta Cacchetta Trombetta Lambretta Giallo Ossido, Ooooooh Così Magnifico! last week. Despite the lengthy Italian title, it’s a brief collection of speedy punk anthems the band has made its name on over the last 3+ decades. One of the standout tracks for me is this, a cover of Baby Huey’s 1971 motown hit.
Moreish Idols – Speedboat
In the last few years, Speedy Wunderground has been on a tear, helping fuel the new wave of guitar bands coming out of England and Ireland. Now, Dan Carey has found another new signing. The latest group to join the Speedy Wunderground family is Moreish Idols, a five-piece originally hailing from a Cornish coastal town and now based in London. Going by their new single “Speedboat,” Carey hasn’t lost his touch.
“Speedboat” is Moreish Idols’ debut on the label. Here’s what frontman Jude Lilley had to say about it:
When I was about 18 I stopped off in Venice with some friends after a festival. One hot afternoon in our grubby clothes, we managed to find a place doing pizza slices and beer for a couple of euros. Hidden away from the intimidatingly glamorous tourists we sat on a jetty and tucked into our newly purchased treats. As we were chatting away over our lunch, we were interrupted by a thumping kick drum echoing through the canal. The kick grew louder and louder until a white speedboat drifted at full speed into our view and pulled up to the jetty. EDM blasted from the boat, as a slick, well built man in wrap around shades and a red polo shirt inspected his vast pile of parcels. He bent down, grabbed a stack and hopped off the boat. After making the drop at the house behind us, he hopped back into the motor and shot off into the canals. That’s when I knew: I wanted to be a postman in Venice.
Like much of the music we associate with Speedy Wunderground, Moreish Idols’ sound has an art-rock punk aesthetic going on, while the members also cite funk and dub as influences.
Mogwai – Boltfor
Last year, Scottish post-rock overlords Mogwai released their album As The Love Continues. The LP topped the UK charts and earned Mogwai a Mercury Prize nomination. Now, Mogwai frontman Stuart Braithwaite is getting ready to publish his memoir, and Mogwai are about to play London’s Alexandra Palace, their biggest-ever UK headlining show. In advance of that gig, Mogwai have released a new standalone single.
Mogwai started recording their new single “Boltfor” during the As The Love Continues sessions, and they finished it at their studio last month. It’s very much in line with the band’s recent work, compressing their sprawling, epic instrumental style into a sharp, defined four-minute package. As with a lot of recent Mogwai, the song relies heavily on keyboards and drum machines. When “Boltfor” reaches its crashing, guitar driven climax, Mogwai sound as tingly and majestic as ever.
Director Sam Wiehl‘s video for “Boltfor” is a CGI fantasia that seems to be about two acrobats who are made of fireworks running towards each other. In a press release, Wiehl says, “The video is a visual metaphor for the constant movement in life and the unceasing urge to move forward as individuals… in the form of a metaphysical road movie.”
Journey – You Got the Best of Me
Journey are set to return this summer with their first new album of original recordings in 11 years. Entitled Freedom, the 15-track LP will be released on July 8th via BMG. As a preview, the band has shared the lead single, “You Got the Best of Me,” which you can hear below.
Unable to tour due to the pandemic, Journey’s Neal Schon began work on the album in 2020. “I spent a lot of time in my little studio at home, learning how to play keyboards and looping,” Schon explained. “Some of those ideas ended up being songs. So it kind of came out of nowhere.”
Alongside Schon, keyboardist/lyricist Jonathan Cain, and vocalist Arnel Pineda, Freedom features the return of bassist Randy Jackson, who appears on a Journey album for the first time since 1986’s Raised on Radio.
Of the first single, “You Got the Best of Me,” Schon said he “wanted kind of a punky rendition of ‘Any Way You Want It.’ I usually don’t go in saying I’m going to look for something like that, but then it just came to me, like ‘Wheel in the Sky’ did years ago. It just kind of flew out of my mouth.”
Journey are currently amidst a North American tour with Toto, which runs through the middle of May.