Long and slow and bordering on psychedelic
June 19, 2016 11:51 AM   Subscribe

 
this as amazing
posted by PinkMoose at 12:36 PM on June 19, 2016


This is great. I don't know much about the blues, so, if I was looking for more stuff like this, can anyone tell me where I should be looking?
posted by YAMWAK at 12:43 PM on June 19, 2016


One of my favorite tracks, but seriously weird.
posted by Death and Gravity at 12:46 PM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


As soon as I saw the name Mel Brown, I instantly recalled another slow jam funk blues classic from back then: Clifford Coulter's "Do It Now, Worry About It Later," also featuring Mr. Mel Brown on fat, fat guitar.
posted by beelzbubba at 12:51 PM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is some seriously nasty funk that has me off to find some albums.
posted by delfin at 12:52 PM on June 19, 2016


One of the great unheralded guitar heroes.
posted by jonmc at 1:11 PM on June 19, 2016


this as amazing too
posted by Leon at 1:17 PM on June 19, 2016


Oooh thanks for this. Just the thing for a slow, hot afternoon.
posted by kinnakeet at 1:22 PM on June 19, 2016


okay, this definitely moves Mel Brown way up on my list of "Favorite Mels", just below Blanc, Brooks and Tormé, but above Tillis, Sideshow and "Mel of Mel's Diner"
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:37 PM on June 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Another psychedelicized soul/blues/jazz classic was Les McCann's "Invitation to Openness," with Yusef Lateef on reeds, David Spinozza & Cornell Dupree on guitars, Jodie Christian & McCann on keyboards, Pretty Purdie & Alphonse Mouzon on drums & percussion, and Ralph McDonald & various others on percussion. Bill Salter on bass, Corky Hale on harp (yes, I had to look it up). It's on YT here:Invitation To Openness
posted by beelzbubba at 1:39 PM on June 19, 2016 [7 favorites]


I keep hearing this as a soundtrack to a 70's blaxploitation film...
posted by jim in austin at 2:21 PM on June 19, 2016


Lord have mercy. So understated, yet powerful.
posted by DonnyMac at 2:34 PM on June 19, 2016


whoooaaaaa....
posted by photoslob at 3:45 PM on June 19, 2016


The real hero is the drummer.
posted by mattamatic at 5:10 PM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Nice. Just what I needed to help make it through this ungodly hot day.
posted by evilDoug at 5:26 PM on June 19, 2016


hot damn this is sexy as shit
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:43 PM on June 19, 2016


sooooo much better than regular chitlins
posted by GhostRider at 7:52 PM on June 19, 2016


according to Discogs, these are the hot shit folks who should be fanned with palm fronds, in whatever corporeal or non-corporeal form they are, from now until roughly eternity:

Composed By, Guitar – Mel Brown
Drums – Greg Ferber
Engineer – Ed Fournier
Organ – Cliff Coulter*
Producer – Ed Michel
posted by Collaterly Sisters at 7:52 PM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


Gutsy.
posted by flabdablet at 11:28 PM on June 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


A word for the guy who engineered this. The instruments are isolated to their own tracks and then usually what would happen is they'd be mixed down to stereo with each placed in an acoustic simulation of a real stage: the lead instrument near but not at the center, the drums slightly to opposite side behind it and the organ off a little farther to one side. Or else they could be lazy and drop the guitar in the center in mono, drums left channel, organ right channel.

But not this time. The drums are center, the organ creeps in off the right stage, the guitar (the featured instrument, mind), somewhere way the hell off to the left. And then they start dancing around each other, moving slowly at first, with the guitar sliding in to the center and back to the left and the organ tentatively following suit. By the halfway point everybody's swirling around and thats about the time you should notice that the engineer's been messing with the reverb for a while now, winding up towards a climax a few minutes later when he's effectively switching it on and off with the music beat all while making the drums and guitar pirouette around each other.

It's a tour de force of a very weird production style. And an antecedent of dance music production styles, not just dub (Lee "Scratch" Perry was already kicking the reverb by then) but in the ways club DJs control the mood of the room through the mixing board.

The music on this track is really awesome too -- I dunno if that needed reiterating after the comments above. But this is a rare example of the engineer going gonzo and making it work.
posted by ardgedee at 4:28 AM on June 20, 2016 [11 favorites]


Man, I needed that....
posted by Devonian at 4:41 AM on June 20, 2016


So sweet! That track led me to Mel Brown's version of "Hey Joe". Wonderful guitar, bass, and engineering.
posted by Agave at 11:41 AM on June 20, 2016


Sweet jumping jebus, this is great.
posted by lumpenprole at 2:08 PM on June 20, 2016


dope track
posted by foobaz at 10:11 PM on June 21, 2016


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