Bit of a pompous title and not all that true but you can’t dismiss the man’s importance for dance music. I’m talking about Mel Cheren, the man behind West End Records (and so much more). Based on his autobiography “My life and the Paradise Garage; Keep On Dancing” this is a documentary about the man. It’ll add to the already well documented history of Disco music, no doubt, but I hope it’s more than everybody saying how great he was. We’ll see. Reminds me I need to finish the book.

Mel Cheren recently announced his retirement from the business. No more new West End releases. Their entire back catalogue will go digital though. Many classics are wrapped in that rose sleeve. Check it out.

I had heard tunes like “Heart’s Desire”, “Holding you, Loving You” and “You Ain’t Hip” before and liked them very much but I never paid real attention to the artist behind it. Until I bought this absolute masterpiece. All tunes mentioned before are on it. It’s one of those records that blow you away from start to finish and which make you wonder why you didn’t notice it sooner. Funkadelic / Parliament and Lenny White / Twennynine are never far away (he did session work for both of them) but this LP can easily stand next to the best work of those. The record that’s best reference is Bernard Wright’s “‘Nard”. For which Don Blackman wrote and sang “Haboglabotribin’”, a tune most of us will recognise through the sample Snoop used. For the sample spotters, Skee-lo used Bernard Wright’s “Spinnin’” for his “I Wish” hit. Both LP’s are loaded with samples. Another common thing is that both LP’s are produced by Dave Grusin.

For all who loves Rare Groove, early eighties bass heavy Funk or afternoon sessions at Southport this is essential. And it’s a great staring point for trips to the work of Tom Browne, Twennynine, George Duke and others. I love it when 1 piece of vinyl opens the door to an entire world of great music.

Maybe it’s time to make a little roundup of where you can find Onda Sonora on the web. We’ve been updating / increasing our presence internet-wise the last few weeks.

Our Myspace has been upgraded after months of neglecting. You’ll find a lot of pictures of our parties, guests and ourselves, as well as an overview of our flyers. Next to that there’s info about us and what we’re planning and links to a lot of interesting places related to Onda Sonora on the net.

You’ve got our Blog off course, which you know because you’re reading it now. The Blog has been rearranged so finding posts in our archive should be a lot easier.

We’ve started a Podcast. With 2 mixes on it. But I hope to add another very soon. A mix done by Disco Dalglish. I hope to keep this rhythm, adding at least 1 mix every month. Hope you like it. We’ve had some nice reaction already but feel free to give us your own.

There’s another mix, assembled by BLA, on the net. On the On-Point Podcast. You can find it over here.

That’s the main thing. Here and there rests of old sites still can be found but we’re erasing those. We’ve got a mailinglist that’s been dormant for ages now. Don’t really know what to do with it. I get the impression that who’s on the list reads our Blog too. Could be wrong though.

Feel free to ventilate your opinion. We’re glad to hear it, good or bad. You can do it on this Blog or by mail.

Don’t forget our last party before a summer hiatus of more than a month. With A3N and Jonathan as guests. It’s going to be good, I feel it.

Next party is Tuesday August 14th. A Spectakulo pre-party. After which, naturally, the Spectakulo party with as guests Benji B and Lefto follows, September the 1st.

One of the best Music magazines around is about to publish hits last edition ever. Straight No Chaser, style- and content wise the best regularly printed pages I know will cease to exist. A big shame. Makes me depressed. Shops closing, labels going bankrupt, magazines stopping. Bad times for music lovers. Too much people expect everything to be free. Just a couple of weeks ago I was told to be dumb and telling nonsense because I told somebody he should buy his music instead of downloading it for free. If that’s the state of mind of people nowadays no wonder the music biz is going Darfur. Minds need to be set straight very urgently or we’ll lose even more. Sad times.

More info:
Brownswood board
Beyondjazz board
Straight no Chaser Site
Straight no Chaser Myspace

Looking forward to the weekend, summer and a lot of music. This weekend it’s private party time. Tonight playing some fine tunes somewhere in Evere, tomorrow chilling in the city centre with one of the loveliest ladies around. Next weekend it’s the last Onda Sonora before the summer vacation. With local hero’s A3N and Jonathan. It’s gonna be good, I feel it. Both great dj’s with a fine taste and we have been buying a lot of superb records we can’t wait to test on the dance floor. The new Osunlade and Ben Westbeech tunes for example.

After that it’s officially summer. This year we haven’t got many dj-dates in July and August. And I’m not sorry for that. Now I can check a lot of things myself. Make trips to here and everywhere. Amsterdam, London and the Ardèche are already on the program for July. Really thrilled and exited about that.

The few times we’ll be behind decks this summer is at Bruksellive, Brussels loveliest and most easy going festival, and our own Spectakulo pre-party the 14th of August. Will both be nice, no doubt.

And although it hasn’t yet begun properly, summer, I can’t wait for it to end. Because then it’s Spectakulo time. Having Benji B as guest. That’s going to be big. Check him playing at the Sonar Festival together with Steve Spacek on his BBC 1Xtra show. Y’all got to come if you like our music because you’ll rarely get such a chance to see one of the best in our genre play in Belgium on a soundsystem like ours and this for free. There are really no excuses to miss this one.

Since reading the article about him in Waxpoetics been digging up what I’ve got from him. Beginning with the Soul Jazz compilation. Noticed we put a song from him on our 80’s Soul Mixtape. Lola’s “Wax the Van”. Although it’s on the compilation didn’t make the connection with Arthur Russel until last week. Anyway, getting deep into his work. It’s not something you always dig instantaneous, at least I don’t, but when you put it through your headphones on a more than decent volume and give it the time to infiltrate your soul it’s addictive.

Been humming Dinosaur L’s “Go Bang” for weeks now. Loose Joint’s “All over my face” was the first thing that put me onto Arthut Russell. But really got interested in him when I was exploring Walter Gibbons remixes a little more. “Treehouse/Schoolbell” having become a firm favourite of mine. It’s all stuff for the more discerning dance floor but that’s the one I like the most.

I always think that talking about dance music is a bit foolish. Put the man’s music on your stereo, turn up the volume and absorb it. Dance to it. More people should do that. It would make the world a little better.

You might have heard their superb jazz take on “Strings of life” on Sonar Kollektiv. We’ve been spinning it at each occasion given. It’s storming. Not the jazz noodles it could’ve been, not the sometimes lame and boring [re:jazz] way of doing it. No, it’s proper dance floor jazz. Well, just heard that Christian Prommer and co have done an entire album with these kind of “jazz covers dance classics”. They recorded it in 24 hours. Gilles Peterson played their version of MAW’s “Nervous track” in his show. Sounds promising. They’ve done a version of “Beau Mot Plage” too, apparently. Can’t wait to hear it.

Check Christian Prommer’s Myspace for the Strings of Life cover. Check Gilles Peterson’s show to hear more.

Dutch spoken quality Hiphop, it’s quite rare. You’ve got Opgezwolle, Jawat, Opposites and Jiggy Dje in the Netherlands. Mellow P and Rasss in Belgium. Can’t dig much else. But now Top Notch, the prime Dutch label in this genre, released Typhoon’s debut and it’s strong enough to add the kid to this list. Still not on the lonely height where Sticks, Rico and Delic from Opgezwolle reside but well enough to stand in their shadow.

Check it on 3voor12’s Luisterpaal. Check him and Opgezwolle at Lefto’s day at Dour festival.

Other Dutch Hiphop cats to check:
Opgezwolle
Jawat
Jiggy Dje
Mellow P
Rasss

Listed up some of the more interesting expos in Brussels when it comes to architecture and alike.

Het Rijksadministratief Centrum
> 29.06.2007
Halles St-Gery
St-Goriksplein / Place St-Gery, 1000 Brussels
Tue > Sun – 10h > 18h

A vision for Brussels. Imagining the capital of Europe
> 29/06/2007
BOZAR
Ravensteinstraat, 1000 Brussels
Tue > Sun – 10h > 18h (Thu 21h)

Artgeneering
> 06.07.2007
Recyclart
Rue des Ursulines, 1000 Brussels
Mon > Fri – 11h > 17h
Free Entrance

Buildings for Europe, the changing face of Brussels
> 30.09.2007
Old trainstation Luxemburg
Free Entrance
Mon > Sun – 10h > 20h

Eero Saarinen, Shaping the future
> 07.10.2007
CIVA
Kluisstraat 55, 1050 Elsene / Ixelles
Tue > Sun – 10h30 > 18h

Expo collection of the Archives d’Architecture Moderne
> 23.12.2007
Museum for architecture – De Loge
Kluisstraat 86, 1050 Elsene / Ixelles
Tue > Sun – 12h > 18h (Wed 21h)

Phat Phil Cooper. Played at JH Eenders twice this nice fellow from Liverpool. Is involved in running the lovely Sick Trumpet record label and is an ace dj. With a love for the right music. If you want to know more about him, check his Myspace. If you want to hear what he likes to hear check his Podcast. Radiostyle but with lovely tunes galore. You’ll get more info than you can handle. That’s the way we like it.

There will be Spectakulo t-shirts available. We’ve ordered a bunch of them for all helping before, during and after the festival but the rest we’ll sell. The men’s model will be dark brown shirt with orange print, the ladies will wear a sleeveless, deep red shirt with dark yellow print. Print will be the star like presented on top of this topic.

If interested, just send us a mail.

And if there are people interested in buying the current Onda Sonora shirt, let us know and we’ll arange something. They cost 15 EUR. We’re thinking of reprinting the first one too. Other colours but same print. The one with the Onda Sonora logo. If enough respons. So let us know if you want one.

Flyers are designed. Minimal like always. They’ll be available in printed version and posters late next week. If you spot some mistakes, please tell me as soon as possible.

Thanks to Terry Callier, Madvillain, Syl Johnson and Kleeer for the aural support.

We’ve expanded and reoganized the pics section of our Myspace. You’ll find pictures of our guests, our lovely crowd, ourself and an overview of flyers we made for our parties of of parties we’ve played at. More will be added in the near future, so watch our Myspace.

I’ve put our second Podcast online. It’s not a new mix. It’s our kinda famous “80’s Soul Mix”. Some rare and some rather well known tunes mixed together by Disco Dalglish back to back with BLA. We’ve handed out a lot of CD’s with this mix to people we love and it has been on FM Brussels “Lost in Music”. But because I’m rather surprised by the people we’ve reached through our first Podcast I decided to put it up on Podomatic. We’ve reached a bigger audience than we thought and most of my close friends didn’t even bother to listen to the first mix. It’s mainly those I didn’t expect to check it who did it. So for those cats I’ve uploaded the mix we’re most proud of.

And it’s in a longer version than on the CD or the radio. Mainly because we had to edit it to get it on the CD and the radioshow is only 1 hour long. This mix has 1 more song than the CD-version. Enjoy.

Check it here.

Onda Sonora Soundsystems 80’s Soul Mix:
Mtume - Juicy (Epic)
Gwen Guthrie - Peek a Boo - remix (Island Records)
Rick James feat. Roxanne Shanté - Loosey’s Rap - Rix Mix (Reprise)
Donald Banks - Status Quo (Kapitol Sity Records)
Dennis Edwards - Don’t Look Any Further - New Remix (G-Ordy)
The Family Stand - Sweet Liberation - 12″ Jazzie B’s mix (Atlantic)
Joyce Sims - Come Into My Life (Sleeping Bag)
Skipworth & Turner - Thinking About Your Love (Fourth & Broadway)
Sheila E - Koo Koo (Warner)
Timex Social Club - Rumors (Mercury)
Womack & Womack - It’s My Party (Manhattan)
Chic - My Forbidden Lover (Atlantic)
Change - Let’s Go Together (Cooltempo)
Imagination - So Good, So Right (Red Bus)
B.B. & Q. - Dreamer - Vocal Long Version (Elektra)
NYC Peech Boys - On a Journey (Island Records)
Gwen Guthrie - Seventh Heaven - Original Album mix (Island Records)
Lola - Wax The Van (Syncopate)
Stephanie - Funky School (La Musique Funky)
Level 42 - Starchild (Polydor)

You might have noticed some changes here. I’ve been reorganizing the categories. And made the mistake not to think the procedure over thoroughly. So I need to re-address the categories one by one manually. Could take a while. But in the end we hope to have brought some clearer structure in this Blog. It’s for your pleasure.

And because we were a little bored this afternoon.

Because he asks it so friendly trough his myspace I’ll tell you to buy Donnie’s new album. Called ‘the Daily News’. His first vinyl was an absolute winner for me. It also led to some ace remixes (Quentin Harris and Karizma both reconstructing ‘Cloud 9’ to great dance floor effect). But where that album was funky, feelgood funk & soul reminding you of the good old days his latest release is much heavier on the content side. Since he recorded ‘Our New National Anthem’ with IG Culture he went political. 9/11 was catalyst for that.

‘The Daily News’ is not no easy listening. It confronts you. It forces you to use your brain. And it does that with the same funk and soul, legends like Marvin, James and Stevie did. To me, it’s one of the best records of 2007 up until now. It’s very good.

Stand out tracks for me, if I have to choose one ‘cause they’re all good, is ‘Over-the-counter-culture’. Deep and with a relentless groove.

Although I bought mine a couple of weeks ago at Southport, his myspace tells us it’ll be in the shops from 19th of June on. Buy it. You need this.

After Tee Two had cancelled we took our time to replace him. We had some offers which were nice but finally we decided that we will keep the date, being Saturday June 30th, and that we would give some local cats a go behind the decks. First up its dj A3N, a youngster who proofed at our weekender that he can play a more than decent set. On top of that we’ve asked Jonathan to join us behind the decks. We know him as a music lover (he was part of the Southport crew) and at Boenanza a couple of weeks ago he played a more than solid set. Nice guys and ace dj’s. Both of them. Come check it out.

Friday there will be no Onda Sonora activity to be spotted. Time to give some attention to people we shamefully neglected for too long. Saturday will be an evening on which we’ll surely meet more people we haven’t seen for too long. Our old friend Hans is giving a party at the Kultuurkaffee at the VUB because he’s leaving the country for a couple of years or more. Can’t really blame him if you see the results of the latest elections. Anyway he’s off to do good in Africa and India. We wish him and his girlfriend all the best and we’ll give him a sweaty farewell from behind the decks on Saturday he won’t forget lightly.

More private parties up ahead next weekend. Nice because we love such parties.

Disco Dalglish will be playing an 100% Reggae set in Molenbeek at an happening meant to protest against the vast amount of unused buildings in Brussels. This Saturday. Check the flyer for more info. Because there’s more happening than partying alone.

I’m a big fan of this cat. Since the time we had a decent national football team. Ages ago. He’s got a groove I definitely connect to and his music oozes Soul. With a big S. He’s got so much tunes among my personal classics the amount of his records in my box is ridiculous. I could play entire sets with only his music. Some of those treasures are his mixes for Jazzy Jeff (Rock Wit U), Roland Brival (Sakitayo), John Cutler (You Groove Me), Tortured Soul (I Might Do Something Wrong), Jazzanova (That Night) or his own productions like ‘The Day We Met For Coffee’, ‘Don’t Change’, ‘When This Feeling’ (or actually the entire Paradigm LP), ‘Aldeia de Ogum’, ‘Touch My Soul’ and his covers of Prince (Crazy You) or Radiohead (Everything In Its Right Place). And it’s mad how much I’m even not mentioning. The guy’s a bloody genius.

And he’s a great DJ. He’s got that same tight groove in his dj-sets. In short; I’m a fan. Don’t know if he’s all that impressed with me. Once told him a whole story, me wearing an African shirt, drunk as hell, in my native language. Being the beautiful tongue of Halle. Ossundu, like we call him, surely is still baffled about what happened to him that day.

But the reason why I started this mail in the first place is because he realeased a new tune. On the revived Strictly Rhythm label. The first of his album coming out on June 18th. It’s called ‘April’ and it contains everything I love about the man’s music. Expect to hear it a lot from now on.
Check his Myspace. And check the ‘April’ tune here on the Strictly Rhythm site.

Are coming to Klinkende Munt in De Beursschouwburg. Nice One. Check it out over here.

About time we wrote something.

Not much to write about. Spending much time designing flyers and thinking of ways to make promotion for our little festival early September. The one with Benji B as main guest. Trying to work out an alternative for Tee Two Mariani who cancelled for his Onda Sonora date June 30^th. Some interesting opportunities popped up but nothing confirmed. So can’t tell you much about that.

Making wild plans for a lot of things that could happen after summer. Cleaning up the apartment thoroughly. All in all being busy but not blogging.

For those of you that don’t need to get up early Sunday (I myself I’m drafted to help at the polling station) there’s Strictly Niceness at Biberium in Brussels. Check it, ‘cause it’s an ace party. Need to skip it myself most regrettably. Know myself a bit too well to try to make a quick visit.

Fairly Recent Productions
J Dilla - The $ - Madlib Remix (Stones Throw)
Donnie feat. Phonte - Over-The-Counter-Culture (Dome)
Simbad feat. Steelo - Supersonic Revelation - Marathon Men Remix (Raw Fusion)
Anto Vitale - Theorama del Faya - Ian Friday Vocal Remix (Tea Party Music)
Theo Parrish - The Rink (Sound Signature)
Paul Randolph - Believer - Jazzanova Vocal Remix (Still Music)
Burial - Prayer (Hyperdub)
DJ Sani Pitbull - Beatch Brasil (Man)
The SA-RA Creative Partners - My Lady (Jazzy Sport)
DJ Jazzy Jeff feat. Jean Grae - Super Jean (BBE Music)

Older Stuff
Linda Williams - Elevate Your Mind (BBE Music)
Daphne - When U Love Someone - Danny Tenaglia Club Mix (NRK)
General Echo - Arleen (BBE Music)
Jurassic Five  - Jayou (PIAS)
Myra Barnes - Super Good (Urban)
Cat Stevens - Was Dog A Doughnut (A&M)
Kindred the Family Soul - Rhythm Of Life - King Britt Remix (Hidden Beach)
Bill Withers - Lovely Day (CBS)
Roy Ayers - Running Away (Polydor)
Cherelle - Saturday Love - Extended Remix (Tabu)
Georgia Anne Muldrow - One For The Fonk (Stones Throw)
Spade Brigade feat. The Ace of Spades - I’m Your Man (Kay Dee)
Nico Gomez - Rio (Le Smoke Disque)
The Gals & Pals - Blue On Blue (Dynamite Soul)
Terry Callier - What Colour Is Love LP (Cadet)
Kleeer - Tonight (Atlantic)
Syl Johnson - Is It Because I’m Black (Twinight)

DJ Tee Two Mariani has cancelled. Due to personal matters. A big shame but some things are more important than playing at a party. We hope that everything clears up soon and we can bring him over pretty soon. Love to see him again.

We don’t have a backup plan yet. Working on that as we speak.