Dust Hunters: Heavy Soul Brutha
Dust Hunters dives into the record libraries of noteworthy collectors to unveil their favourite gems.
Crate digging is an obsessive and never-ending quest for dope sounds pressed onto little plastic discs. First up in this series of personal vinyl features is Heavy Soul Brutha, record junkie and Mixcloud ambassador of funk & soul. Check out a bit of his story and some of his top 5 records.
First off, I’d like to thank The Find Mag for inviting me in to be a part of this series. It’s so cool to see vinyl records coming back around and being embraced by lots of young cats out there. It used to be pretty much just me and a few others at my local digging spots only a few years ago hunched over dusty record boxes, wiping our noses from sneezing as the dust flew each time a record was flipped. And now, just yesterday at my shop around the corner I was stunned to see so many kids. Yes, most old school hip hop heads like myself are in their 40’s now, so 20 somethings are kids to me. Never thought I’d be saying that. At any rate, it’s a cool thing to see, and hopefully it’s not just a fad, but a real appreciation to the cool physical aspect that collecting your music on vinyl can be.
So, I thought I’d share some of what got me back into digging for records after parting with almost all of my records during the 90’s as the CD revolution pushed vinyl out of my local shops. About ten or so years ago two things happened. I saw a bootleg DVD of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist‘s Brainfreeze performance. All 45’s, mostly old Soul records and AMAZING. It’s got legendary status among diggers and DJ’s and that status is well deserved. It’s monumental!
And the second. Around the same time, legendary UK music artist Paul Weller, of which I’m a huge fan, did a series of radio shows for the BBC where he played some incredible Soul and Funk records from his personal collection. After hearing that series and those stunning records, that’s when I decided to get out there and start seriously digging through those dusty bins and boxes in the basement of my local record shop, mostly to find those records Weller had played. And I’ve just never stopped looking for those lost treasures.
Along the way I found a few from Weller’s radio show, but I also found loads of other things that I thought needed to be heard as well and that’s where the idea came about to create my HeavySoulBrutha website/blog in, damn, way back in 2007. Doesn’t seem that long ago. One of the highlights of the site is connecting with other music aficionados and diggers in all parts of the world that hip me to sounds that constantly surprise and inspire me. Just when think you’ve heard it all, something new gets sent your way and that discovery is so cool.
Here’s five records that I’ve found along the way that I just love, and with each listen make the endless hours of digging through dusty bins well worth it. Go out and buy a record player and hit up the used bins if you have a shop near you. There are treasures to be found!!!
Peace and SOUL…
Shouts to my blogging/digging friends and inspirations, DJ Prestige of FleaMarketFunk, Larry Grogan of Funky16Corners and DJ Double K of ParkdaleFunk.
