320 Re-Up - originally posted by Mickey P back in 5th July 2008!
This incredible release is one of my all time favourites from Mica. South Of The River from the Contribution album, remixed by the Blacksmith crew.
Pretty good stuff but then we have Where Are The Children, an absolute gem, soul music the way it's meant to be. The track is one of two tracks recorded at Ground Control, Santa Monica, written and produced by Patrick Moten & J.A. Greene for Golden Empire, the cherry on top comes courtesy of Gerald Albright supplying sax. This track has everything except Bobby Womack!
In contrast we have I Should've Known Better, written and produced by Mica & Omar. Omar plays all the instruments and it's kept sparse and simple but that does not detract from it's effectiveness in any way. Mica has room to breathe, space to perform and Omar's beats behind that dangerous bass line, this is a killer track. Enjoy!
This incredible release is one of my all time favourites from Mica. South Of The River from the Contribution album, remixed by the Blacksmith crew.
Pretty good stuff but then we have Where Are The Children, an absolute gem, soul music the way it's meant to be. The track is one of two tracks recorded at Ground Control, Santa Monica, written and produced by Patrick Moten & J.A. Greene for Golden Empire, the cherry on top comes courtesy of Gerald Albright supplying sax. This track has everything except Bobby Womack!
In contrast we have I Should've Known Better, written and produced by Mica & Omar. Omar plays all the instruments and it's kept sparse and simple but that does not detract from it's effectiveness in any way. Mica has room to breathe, space to perform and Omar's beats behind that dangerous bass line, this is a killer track. Enjoy!
Kym's Note: What a fantastic release! The title track South Of The River is one of her best (but she has so many classics), coming with two mixes by the mighty Blacksmith crew. Their Upso Mix comes correct with a (then) fresh new jack swing vibe. The Brixton Bass Mix has a more organic, typically Blacksmith vibe and just edges it out of the two for me. A great summer track.
Where Are The Children is such a sublime piece of true soul, beautifully sung by or Mica. Seems to end too quickly though, just when you think it's gonna peak?
And then we have one of my all time favourite tracks I Should've Known Better - a flawless cut. Omar's bassline is DEVASTATING! (Please note though, this is the regular length version clocking in at 5:08 to be found most places this track pops up at. I will later post the I Never Felt Like This Before single which contains a version with an extra 31 seconds. Hey, when you love this song as much as I do that half a minute is almost orgasmic lol).
My suggestion is hit South Of The River (Brixton Bass Mix) and I Should've Known Better and hit them hard. Several times. Then check the other tracks as they're all great. What a serious release this one is.
- South Of The River (Upso Mix)
- South Of The River (Brixton Bass Mix)
- Where Are The Children
- I Should've Known Better
amazing post mate !!!
ReplyDeleteSouth of the river for me is in the top 5 best UK soul tunes of all time ...
apparently there were remixes of that ... but i never came across them in my record huntin days...
Nitro
oops i meant to say that i never came accross the remixes of Should have Known better.... and its that which is in my top 5 best....
ReplyDeletenitro
Indeed, should've known better is quite possibly my alltime fave UK soul song.
ReplyDeleteThat bassline! Oh, that bassline! And Mica's smokey vocals.
*LOVE*
Thank you so much Kym, Ive had problems since I updated my Mac To Mojave which wouldn't allow me to comment on blogs (Cookies issue)Sorted now I think, So many great tunes you've shared... Nice 1 :)
ReplyDeleteI thought you'd gone quiet, Ingo. Welcome back!
DeleteYeah, I've been doing my best to keep the vibe alive as usual. This beautiful music cannot be allowed to disappear. :)
By the way, feel free to drop comments on any you like. it seems we get precious few of them these days, yourself and Tim aside.
Deletealways been a big mica fan from day one, one of my favourites is I never felt like this before. kym do you have don-e love makes the world go round another favourite of mine from the 90's I kow its on here but could you repost it if possible.
ReplyDeleteI have Love Makes The World Go Round but it's in storage in a box in my garage at the moment. I just need to find the time to dig it out.
DeleteFor the record, I adore Don-E. He's still putting out fantastic music. Did you check out the British Collective album?
South of the River is just wonderful - love the mixes. The Contribution album should have been so big... Who Can We Blame wow, what a vocal
ReplyDeleteRight! It is the same old story all the time with our homegrown soul and Hip Hop. We just don't appreciate our own artists, maybe the newer generations making the less impressive music, but our artists from the 80's and 90's are so under-appreciated.
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame.
These tunes are still fresh for me.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot!
It's a [pleasure!
DeleteAnd yeah, they sound better than 90%+ of modern music.