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With The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble's latest LP "Step Down" due out next Friday, we had the band's main man Tim Felten showcase three of the singles (one just out today) along with an unreleased joint not out until the album drops for an exclusive world premiere on our opening Friday for Season 7 of The Drop.
"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.
Mar 25, 2022
The Drop with Danno
I & II
Aretha Franklin – Rock Steady
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – Don’t Worry Bout What I Do
Stro Elliot feat James Brown – Turn It Up Give It Shrooms
Lonnie Liston Smith – A Chance For Peace
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – The Other Side
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – Step Down
Lack of Afro – For You
Ikebe Shakedown – Dram
De La Soul – Long Island Degrees
David McCallum – The Edge
The Charmels – As Long As I’ve Got You
Grant Green – Down Here On The Ground (Live)
_________
It is 20 hours past midnight as the weekend starts to get outta bed, and it is our season premiere Friday night on The Drop tonight with a very special world premiere, and we are surely going to knock the dirt that’s been building up on your shoulders all week tonight, with the dustpan of spacetime positively brimming as March 25, 2022. This is Danno as always as ever coming at you but probably not for you specifically, emanating the vibes from studio 2, GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju, how do you do? So, as mentioned tonight is quite the special presentation as Sure Fire Soul Ensemble mastermind and veteran multi-instrumentalist Tim Felten joins us for a selections of joints and an exclusive interview in hour 2. The veteran San Diego-based band is out with their fourth studio album next Friday called Step Down, and we’ll talk with Tim in hour 2 about what’s new and get an early spin of one of the tunes on the air to start part 4 this evening along with hearing what’s already out previously, and out this very day as well. So, big things lined up on the show tonight and super psyched to rock some jams in both hours tonight, and we’ll start the warm-up for the Sure Fire 2nd hour with some history to start, as this is also a day that looms large in funk & soul history. Wishing the queen of soul Aretha Franklin a very happy albeit posthumous 80th birthday today, so let’s rock steady. This is The Drop.
Aretha Franklin – Rock Steady
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The Drop has officially started things tonight, lining up all 80 candles for the royal birthday cake and extra jazzed to welcome Tim Felten to the show for our season premiere Friday night with a nice world premiere thrown in for good measure. Our guest is the main man behind San Diego-based funk & soul outfit The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble, and he’ll be rocking a selection of inspirations to their sound when he joins us on the horn in hour 2. Their new LP Step Down is out next Friday via Colemine Karma Chief, and we got an exclusive spin of a tune off that record coming up to begin the end in part 4.
However, to start that was The inimitable Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin with Rock Steady to start things, as today would have been her 80th birthday. It’s almost impossible to quantify such a stellar voice & career, simply one of the best on almost every level one can think of. The vocals, the arrangements, the attitude, and my god…the fashion. She literally knocked the whole world dead with that incredible getup at Obama’s first inauguration. Just a legend.
Rest in power to Aretha Franklin on her 80th. Be sure to rock steady a lot today in celebration.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, podcast…
Now that we’ve got the warm-up for Sure Fire going, let’s get into a proper block of joints right now. Up next we’ll get Cold As Weiss to light the wick then we’ll give James Brown some shrooms and only then will we have a chance for peace. Obviously, we’ll be a bit less cryptic side opposite the sounds but for now THIS is The Drop on your Sure Fire Friday night.
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Back on The Drop and into the last of the mic saliva spouting for here in quarter 1 of our game of audio mirrors. Danno here on an overcast bit of Friday biz locally here in Gwangju, and tonight we welcome a bit of sun from San Diego in Tim Felten, whose band The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble is out with their fourth LP next Friday, and we’ll get a sneaky spin of an unreleased joint to start the final quarter this evening when he joins us on the phone from a sunnier place. For right now, let’s run down that first block of the show…
Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio – Don’t Worry Bout What I Do (…another amazing mainly instrumental soul & breaks crew that appears courtesy of Colemine, this being one of the singles released in the lead-up to their latest album called Cold As Weiss, which dropped February 11. As usual from these cats, so in the pocket it almost tears a hole in the bottom.)
Stro Elliot feat James Brown – Turn It Up Give It Shrooms (…another very cool album that dropped back in February, just a week after Delvon Lamarr was Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined by Stro Elliot. A collaborator with Jazzy Jeff and The Roots, Stro the 89th Key is definitely a guy to know about if you’re not so initiated.)
Lonnie Liston Smith – A Chance For Peace (…took it back to ’75 with this one as Dr. Lonnie released a real classic in his discography called Visions of a New World, which is a bit of a theme when Tim Felten from Sure Fire Soul Ensemble joins us in hour 2.)
Now speak of the devil, we got a pair of already released singles from The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble up next to take us to the jump and part 2. Up next is the title track to the album out next Friday in Step Down, and then we got something called The Other Side to polish off the plate. THIS is The Drop on your Sure Fire Soul Ensemble Friday night season premiere.
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – Step Down
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – The Other Side
II
The Drop returns for tonight as we have cold opened the slow cooked 2nd quarter for tonight’s season and world premeire Friday night programming. Danno here in the usual place, waiting to welcome Tim Felten of The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble for tonight’s 2nd hour. The Socal-based funk & soul vets are out with their fourth career LP next Friday called Step Down. We’ll get an exclusive spin of an unreleased cut from the album to start part 4, so lots to do as usual here on Friday night. Now as to what we just sent up in the space elevator via the magic of radio, let’s get to that...
Lack of Afro – For You ( …this has always been a favorite album of mine called Press On, released in 2007. For those unfamiliar, this is the moniker of Adam Gibbons, who hails from Exeter, England. Additionally, any of you hanging out until the end will most likely catch where that sample got mined from to end the show tonight on Tim Felten’s hour 2 playlist.)
Ikebe Shakedown – Dram ( …another smashing mostly instrumental crew that appears nowadays on Colemine Karma Chief, but we flipped it over to Brooklyn from the West Coast. This cut appeared while they were on Ubiquity in 2014, and that album is called Stone By Stone if you’d like to check it out further.)
Now before we continue with what we’re doing here….#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So up next we’ve got some hip-hop nods to make happen, with De La Soul batting leadoff as we stay on Long Island then it’s David McCallum and The Charmels to take us to the final blah blah blahs of the first half. THIS is The Drop on your Step Down Friday night with The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble.
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Back on The Drop for one final bit of verbosity as we begin the end here in our first 57 of controlled noise this evening, Danno here, this is what I do studio 2 GFN HQ downtown Gwangju, and very first guest artist selector of the new season joins us momentarily. Tim Felten, one of the founding members of The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble will do us the honor of rocking a playlist of his favorites along with giving us a sneaky spin of a b-side off their new record dropping next Friday. Keep an eye out for the Step Down LP, no foolin out April 1 via Colemine Karma Chief. Now, as far as what just beamed out, let’s break it down but not off...
De La Soul – Long Island Degrees (…hard to choose just one cut off 1996’s Stakes Is High LP, now a total classic. Interestingly, this marked the group’s first release without Prince Paul as their producer, mainly carrying the weight themselves with additional input from Jay Dilla and a couple other beatmakers on the record.)
David McCallum – The Edge (…nowadays easily the artist’s most recognized joint, famously sampled by Dr. Dre on The Next Episode. You can also very distinctly hear David Axelrod’s input as producer and arranger on this track, and we’ll definitely get more from the dearly departed shape-shifting genius of modern music in hour 2 on Tim’s playlist.)
The Charmels – As Long As I’ve Got You (…another sampler’s classic here, a song that barely even saw the light of day much less any critical reception upon release in the 1960’s. Of course, that all changed with RZA’s production of CREAM on the Wu Tang’s debut LP from 1993. RZA’s also done some great compilations of his favorite dusties called Shaolin Soul Selection if you’ve never peeped, it is lovely stuff.)
So, we’re about to make the jump to part 3 and we got one more tune to let breathe out here on the air that was cut for time from part 3 this evening. Up next we have Grant Green with Down Here On The Ground, which any 90’s hip-hop head can call straightaway, and that’s gonna be it for our first 57. THIS is The Drop and we got Sure Fire on the way shortly for hour 2.
Grant Green – Down Here On The Ground (Live)
III & IV: Tim Felten/The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – Boardwalk Bump
David Axelrod – The Fly
Ramsey Lewis Trio – Slipping Into Darkness
The Poets of Rhythm – Eulogize the Source
The Mohawks – Beat Me Till I’m Blue
Arzachel – Queen St. Gang
The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble – Love Age
Isaac Hayes – Walk On By
The Cannonball Adderly Quintet – Walk Tall (Baby, That’s What I Need)
Herbie Hancock – Tell Me a Bedtime Story
Beastie Boys – Something’s Got To Give
Placebo – You Got Me Hummin’