Hello, they are dropping like flies these days and not just from covid 19, Gabi Delgado (D.A.F.) Hamilton Bohannon, Tony Allen, Dave Greenfield (Stranglers) and last week Florian Schneider (Kraftwerk) decided the timing was perfect to leave the planet without much ado, a handful of people at his burial, the news broke days after he had died of cancer after a short sick bed. Florian represented the austere perfectionist side of Kraftwerk and as such instrumental in keeping a low profile for the band members.
Today's Artists are Hull-based duo Fila Brazillia is the most popular and acclaimed of the noted Pork Recordings stable. Formed in 1990 by producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, Fila followed Cobby's association with Ashley & Jackson, a moderately successful pop/dance group signed to Big Life! that went belly up as the label began demanding more and more pop and less dance. Returning to his native Hull from Manchester, Cobby met DJ/dabbler Dave Pork, and the two forged a creative alliance. Hooking up with McSherry to form Fila, the group's first 12", "The Mermaid," was released that same year on Pork's fledgling imprint (formed, actually, specifically for the occasion), gaining instant acclaim among DJs and headphonauts alike for its innovative fusion of funk, dub, house, hip-hop, and acid jazz.........N Joy
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Fila Brazillia followed their debut single with a string of full-length releases (Old Codes, New Chaos, Maim That Tune, and Black Market Gardening among them), which were instrumental in building Pork's reputation as one of the most consistent and respected of England's vast ocean of underground breakbeat/trip-hop labels. Later releases integrated elements of pop and drum'n'bass on a number of tracks. Fila's rep also translated into a number of acclaimed remixes, including Lamb's "Cotton Wool," the Orb's "Toxygene," and DJ Food's "Freedom" (over a dozen of which were featured on the 2000 collection Brazilification). During the new millennium, the duo released the mix album Another Late Night in 2001 and the studio effort Jump Leads early the following year. After two years of recording inactivity, in 2004 the duo released a pair of production albums (The Life and Times of Phoebus Brumal and Dicks), plus another mix album (Another Fine Mess). In addition to Fila, Cobby is also an active member of other Pork stable acts such as Solid Doctor (his solo guise) and Heights of Abraham, both of which have released a number of full-length recordings.
Their early albums were released on Pork Recordings, also based in Hull: Old Codes New Chaos, Maim That Tune, Mess, Black Market Gardening, Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight and Power Clown. After creating their own music label with Sim Lister, Twentythree Records, they released further albums A Touch of Cloth, Jump Leads, The Life And Times of Phoebus Brumal, Dicks and Retrospective. They have also released two DJ mix albums, Another Late Night: Fila Brazillia, for Azuli Records' "Another Late Night" series, and Another Fine Mess: Fila Brazillia, and two collections of remixes: Brazilification and B2.
Their collaborations include working with Harold Budd and Bill Nelson to release Three White Roses & A Budd (Twentythree Records, 2002). They co-produced the first Twilight Singers LP Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers with Greg Dulli in 2001. Cobby and McSherry have produced more than 70 remixes for artists including Black Uhuru, Busta Rhymes, DJ Food, Lamb, Radiohead and The Orb. Bill Hicks, the controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist and social critic, "appears" on Fila Brazillia's album Maim That Tune (1996) and the album is dedicated to Hicks.
Their music has made its mark both on small-screen blockbusters (such as CSI and Sex and the City) and cult cinema films such as Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants and Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, a 2006 documentary about the New York Cosmos soccer team. One of their better-known songs, A Zed and two L's, appears on Jam, a black comedy sketch show by British satirist Chris Morris. Their song "Here Comes Pissy Willy" from the Power Clown album featured as the theme to the James Whale Show on Talk Radio in the late 1990s.
After releasing their Retrospective album in 2006, Cobby and McSherry quietly ended their longtime partnership. Currently, McSherry is a lecturer in Audio Production at the University of Lincoln.
Cobby went on in late 2006 to form Steel Tiger Records with Sim Lister. Over the course of 2007, the label saw various digital releases by J*S*T*A*R*S (Cobby and Lister), Peacecorps (Cobby and guitarist Rich Arthurs) and by The Cutler (Cobby and ex-head of Pork Recordings David "Porky" Brennand). The first formal album by The Cutler on Steel Tiger Records was released on 7 July 2008, and the most recent "Everything Is Touching Everything Else" (Steel Tiger Records ST016, 10 June 2013) – with vocals by Isobel Helen, Archie Heselwood, Andrew Taylor and Little Glitches – distributed by Kudos Records Ltd.
In 2013 Steve Cobby provided the soundtrack for the Hull 'UK City of Culture 2017' bid film - 'This City Belongs to Everyone', produced by Nova Studios - on 20 November 2013 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, was announced as the winning City, and so as UK City of Culture 2017.
After a 16 year hiatus, on 6 March 2020, the band returned with the release of the MMXX EP.
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All Fila releases take a little time to "grok" and this one took me longer than most -- but the musical reward is in direct proportion to the effort. The fifth installment of the Fila-B World Domination Tour finds them really stretching out and enjoying their art. The boys are experimenting more with the textures of "live" sounds and instrumentation, and playing faster and looser with their funk-jazz-soul signature sound. The Fila M.O. is still there -- rump-shaking simplicity disguising jazzy complexity -- but instead of bringing it to you on a platter, this time they're asking you to meet them half way. Arrangements and melodies are more complex and multi-layered, and overall selection reflects more stylistic variety.
Even more experimentally hyper than on previous LPs, Fila Brazillia cross-fertilize styles with abandon on Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight, resulting in such genre-bending as prog-blaxploitation and space-disco, as well as more straight-ahead fusions like lounge-disco.
Fila Brazillia - Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight (flac 349mb)
01 Lieut. Gingivitis Shit 5:10
02 Billy Goat Groupies 3:36
03 Apehorn Concerto 6:15
04 Hells Rarebit 7:34
05 Her Majesties Hokey Cokey 4:35
06 Rustic Bellyflop 4:39
07 Van Allens Belt 9:54
08 Pollo de Palo 6:29
09 Heat Death of the Universe 7:45
10 Weasel Out the Muck 6:43
11 Do the Hale-Bopp 6:07
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The eclecticism and the organic warmth of Fila Brazillia's electronica continue to amaze on Power Clown, one of their finest efforts to date. Laid-back jazz-funk grooves straight out of the '70s are the foundation of the record, but hints of Stevie Wonder-esque soul, hip-hop, bossa nova, ambient, spacey techno, house, minimalist electro, big-beat, and trip-hop all pop up here and there, as do touches of ethnic percussion, acoustic guitar, saxophone solos, new age-y synth flourishes, and the occasional odd vocal sample or sound effect. What really pushes Power Clown over the top, though, is that the group maintains their focus throughout, never meandering and changing things up often enough to keep the grooves from becoming repetitive. One of the finest and most overlooked electronic-dance releases of 1998.
Fila Brazillia - Power Clown (flac 370mb)
01 Bovine Funk 6:39
02 The New Cannonball 4:360
03 Here Comes Pissy Willy 4:22
04 Throwing Down a Shape 5:19
05 Bumpkin Riots 5:59
06 President Chimp Toe 4:08
07 Firelanes 5:32
08 It Loved to Happen 1:08
09 Little Hands Rouge 5:50
10 Tunstall and California Haddock 3:38
11 Feathery Legs 8:22
12 A Wince of Sumo 2:11
13 The Speewah 5:23
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fila's first album away from the excellent Pork Recordings is a mesmerising creation. The fusion of styles (funk, jazz, ambient etc) is wonderfully realised and Fila have produced an album with a sound of its' own. A Touch of Cloth charts territory similar to the previous year's Power Clown, namely the lighter side of '70s funk. From Curtis Mayfield to 77 Sunset Strip, Fila Brazillia captures the decade with all the laid-back rhythms and groovy basslines listeners expect. This album is a very coherent whole, this album is an single listening experience, with each track forming an integral part of the overall fabric. There are of course moments that each listener will cherish especially keenly. For me the closing track Spores is simply stunning. A chillout masterpiece up there with the finest I can recall. Whenever the track comes on, I will totally defocus any distractions and just sit still spellbound by the melodic perfection of it. Fila have always had a very strong ability to assemble a diverse range of influences into a new whole, but for me this album demonstrates that knack with more confidence and sureness of touch than their other excellent albums before or since.
Fila Brazillia - A Touch Of Cloth (flac 312mb)
01 The Bugs Will Bite 4:56
02 Airlock Homes 4:17
03 Ridden Pony 3:18
04 Slow Light 4:19
05 Swann Todd 3:19
06 Snakeskin Bib 5:16
07 XII 2:04
08 Trivia 3:53
09 Pigs Blood and Chalk 4:14
10 Dervish Controller 4:37
11 Leonids 8:16
12 Spores 3:55
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Mixing obscure brain funk with the erogenous pulse of jazz, soul, and left-field electronic chamber pop, Fila Brazillia's first attempt at a mix album is one of the most enjoyably indiscriminate chill-out compilations in some time. New York's Kinetic label, best known for its Tranceport franchise, was wise to let Fila Brazillia's Steve Cobby and Dave Pork step in and kick off their new Another Late Night series. The duo's liking for accessible, caricature-based, mischievous downtempo blends well in this mix environment, where the freedom to place elements like Prince Alla's roots reggae, the Swingle Singers' Prelude and Fugue in C minor, and the stoic lunacy of the Beta Band in the same arena as Kelis and Marvin Gaye goes unchallenged. It's both an excellent introduction to the band's idiosyncrasies and a tacit triumph of naked eclecticism in its own right.
Fila Brazillia - Another Late Night (flac 401mb)
01 John Barry - The Persuaders Theme 2:02
02 Homelife - Firefly 2:50
03 The Infesticons - Hero Theme 3:10
04 Prince Alla - Bucket Bottom 2:43
05 Mr. Scruff - Get a Move On 7:00
06 Marvin Gaye - "T" Plays It Cool 4:01
07 Brian Eno - Regiment 3:00
08 The Beta Band - It's Not Too Beautiful 6:33
09 David Holmes - Rodney Yates 6:09
10 Fila Brazillia - Nature Boy 3:54
11 Unforscene - Nuclear Symphony 4:51
12 Nightmares on Wax - Nuits 5:36
13 Outside - Blue Skies 6:14
14 Kelis - Suspended 4:29
15 The Swingle Singers - Prelude and Fugue in C Minor 1:48
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Today's Artists are Hull-based duo Fila Brazillia is the most popular and acclaimed of the noted Pork Recordings stable. Formed in 1990 by producers Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry, Fila followed Cobby's association with Ashley & Jackson, a moderately successful pop/dance group signed to Big Life! that went belly up as the label began demanding more and more pop and less dance. Returning to his native Hull from Manchester, Cobby met DJ/dabbler Dave Pork, and the two forged a creative alliance. Hooking up with McSherry to form Fila, the group's first 12", "The Mermaid," was released that same year on Pork's fledgling imprint (formed, actually, specifically for the occasion), gaining instant acclaim among DJs and headphonauts alike for its innovative fusion of funk, dub, house, hip-hop, and acid jazz.........N Joy
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fila Brazillia followed their debut single with a string of full-length releases (Old Codes, New Chaos, Maim That Tune, and Black Market Gardening among them), which were instrumental in building Pork's reputation as one of the most consistent and respected of England's vast ocean of underground breakbeat/trip-hop labels. Later releases integrated elements of pop and drum'n'bass on a number of tracks. Fila's rep also translated into a number of acclaimed remixes, including Lamb's "Cotton Wool," the Orb's "Toxygene," and DJ Food's "Freedom" (over a dozen of which were featured on the 2000 collection Brazilification). During the new millennium, the duo released the mix album Another Late Night in 2001 and the studio effort Jump Leads early the following year. After two years of recording inactivity, in 2004 the duo released a pair of production albums (The Life and Times of Phoebus Brumal and Dicks), plus another mix album (Another Fine Mess). In addition to Fila, Cobby is also an active member of other Pork stable acts such as Solid Doctor (his solo guise) and Heights of Abraham, both of which have released a number of full-length recordings.
Their early albums were released on Pork Recordings, also based in Hull: Old Codes New Chaos, Maim That Tune, Mess, Black Market Gardening, Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight and Power Clown. After creating their own music label with Sim Lister, Twentythree Records, they released further albums A Touch of Cloth, Jump Leads, The Life And Times of Phoebus Brumal, Dicks and Retrospective. They have also released two DJ mix albums, Another Late Night: Fila Brazillia, for Azuli Records' "Another Late Night" series, and Another Fine Mess: Fila Brazillia, and two collections of remixes: Brazilification and B2.
Their collaborations include working with Harold Budd and Bill Nelson to release Three White Roses & A Budd (Twentythree Records, 2002). They co-produced the first Twilight Singers LP Twilight as Played by The Twilight Singers with Greg Dulli in 2001. Cobby and McSherry have produced more than 70 remixes for artists including Black Uhuru, Busta Rhymes, DJ Food, Lamb, Radiohead and The Orb. Bill Hicks, the controversial American stand-up comedian, satirist and social critic, "appears" on Fila Brazillia's album Maim That Tune (1996) and the album is dedicated to Hicks.
Their music has made its mark both on small-screen blockbusters (such as CSI and Sex and the City) and cult cinema films such as Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants and Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos, a 2006 documentary about the New York Cosmos soccer team. One of their better-known songs, A Zed and two L's, appears on Jam, a black comedy sketch show by British satirist Chris Morris. Their song "Here Comes Pissy Willy" from the Power Clown album featured as the theme to the James Whale Show on Talk Radio in the late 1990s.
After releasing their Retrospective album in 2006, Cobby and McSherry quietly ended their longtime partnership. Currently, McSherry is a lecturer in Audio Production at the University of Lincoln.
Cobby went on in late 2006 to form Steel Tiger Records with Sim Lister. Over the course of 2007, the label saw various digital releases by J*S*T*A*R*S (Cobby and Lister), Peacecorps (Cobby and guitarist Rich Arthurs) and by The Cutler (Cobby and ex-head of Pork Recordings David "Porky" Brennand). The first formal album by The Cutler on Steel Tiger Records was released on 7 July 2008, and the most recent "Everything Is Touching Everything Else" (Steel Tiger Records ST016, 10 June 2013) – with vocals by Isobel Helen, Archie Heselwood, Andrew Taylor and Little Glitches – distributed by Kudos Records Ltd.
In 2013 Steve Cobby provided the soundtrack for the Hull 'UK City of Culture 2017' bid film - 'This City Belongs to Everyone', produced by Nova Studios - on 20 November 2013 Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, was announced as the winning City, and so as UK City of Culture 2017.
After a 16 year hiatus, on 6 March 2020, the band returned with the release of the MMXX EP.
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
All Fila releases take a little time to "grok" and this one took me longer than most -- but the musical reward is in direct proportion to the effort. The fifth installment of the Fila-B World Domination Tour finds them really stretching out and enjoying their art. The boys are experimenting more with the textures of "live" sounds and instrumentation, and playing faster and looser with their funk-jazz-soul signature sound. The Fila M.O. is still there -- rump-shaking simplicity disguising jazzy complexity -- but instead of bringing it to you on a platter, this time they're asking you to meet them half way. Arrangements and melodies are more complex and multi-layered, and overall selection reflects more stylistic variety.
Even more experimentally hyper than on previous LPs, Fila Brazillia cross-fertilize styles with abandon on Luck Be a Weirdo Tonight, resulting in such genre-bending as prog-blaxploitation and space-disco, as well as more straight-ahead fusions like lounge-disco.
Fila Brazillia - Luck Be A Weirdo Tonight (flac 349mb)
01 Lieut. Gingivitis Shit 5:10
02 Billy Goat Groupies 3:36
03 Apehorn Concerto 6:15
04 Hells Rarebit 7:34
05 Her Majesties Hokey Cokey 4:35
06 Rustic Bellyflop 4:39
07 Van Allens Belt 9:54
08 Pollo de Palo 6:29
09 Heat Death of the Universe 7:45
10 Weasel Out the Muck 6:43
11 Do the Hale-Bopp 6:07
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
The eclecticism and the organic warmth of Fila Brazillia's electronica continue to amaze on Power Clown, one of their finest efforts to date. Laid-back jazz-funk grooves straight out of the '70s are the foundation of the record, but hints of Stevie Wonder-esque soul, hip-hop, bossa nova, ambient, spacey techno, house, minimalist electro, big-beat, and trip-hop all pop up here and there, as do touches of ethnic percussion, acoustic guitar, saxophone solos, new age-y synth flourishes, and the occasional odd vocal sample or sound effect. What really pushes Power Clown over the top, though, is that the group maintains their focus throughout, never meandering and changing things up often enough to keep the grooves from becoming repetitive. One of the finest and most overlooked electronic-dance releases of 1998.
Fila Brazillia - Power Clown (flac 370mb)
01 Bovine Funk 6:39
02 The New Cannonball 4:360
03 Here Comes Pissy Willy 4:22
04 Throwing Down a Shape 5:19
05 Bumpkin Riots 5:59
06 President Chimp Toe 4:08
07 Firelanes 5:32
08 It Loved to Happen 1:08
09 Little Hands Rouge 5:50
10 Tunstall and California Haddock 3:38
11 Feathery Legs 8:22
12 A Wince of Sumo 2:11
13 The Speewah 5:23
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Fila's first album away from the excellent Pork Recordings is a mesmerising creation. The fusion of styles (funk, jazz, ambient etc) is wonderfully realised and Fila have produced an album with a sound of its' own. A Touch of Cloth charts territory similar to the previous year's Power Clown, namely the lighter side of '70s funk. From Curtis Mayfield to 77 Sunset Strip, Fila Brazillia captures the decade with all the laid-back rhythms and groovy basslines listeners expect. This album is a very coherent whole, this album is an single listening experience, with each track forming an integral part of the overall fabric. There are of course moments that each listener will cherish especially keenly. For me the closing track Spores is simply stunning. A chillout masterpiece up there with the finest I can recall. Whenever the track comes on, I will totally defocus any distractions and just sit still spellbound by the melodic perfection of it. Fila have always had a very strong ability to assemble a diverse range of influences into a new whole, but for me this album demonstrates that knack with more confidence and sureness of touch than their other excellent albums before or since.
Fila Brazillia - A Touch Of Cloth (flac 312mb)
01 The Bugs Will Bite 4:56
02 Airlock Homes 4:17
03 Ridden Pony 3:18
04 Slow Light 4:19
05 Swann Todd 3:19
06 Snakeskin Bib 5:16
07 XII 2:04
08 Trivia 3:53
09 Pigs Blood and Chalk 4:14
10 Dervish Controller 4:37
11 Leonids 8:16
12 Spores 3:55
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
Mixing obscure brain funk with the erogenous pulse of jazz, soul, and left-field electronic chamber pop, Fila Brazillia's first attempt at a mix album is one of the most enjoyably indiscriminate chill-out compilations in some time. New York's Kinetic label, best known for its Tranceport franchise, was wise to let Fila Brazillia's Steve Cobby and Dave Pork step in and kick off their new Another Late Night series. The duo's liking for accessible, caricature-based, mischievous downtempo blends well in this mix environment, where the freedom to place elements like Prince Alla's roots reggae, the Swingle Singers' Prelude and Fugue in C minor, and the stoic lunacy of the Beta Band in the same arena as Kelis and Marvin Gaye goes unchallenged. It's both an excellent introduction to the band's idiosyncrasies and a tacit triumph of naked eclecticism in its own right.
Fila Brazillia - Another Late Night (flac 401mb)
01 John Barry - The Persuaders Theme 2:02
02 Homelife - Firefly 2:50
03 The Infesticons - Hero Theme 3:10
04 Prince Alla - Bucket Bottom 2:43
05 Mr. Scruff - Get a Move On 7:00
06 Marvin Gaye - "T" Plays It Cool 4:01
07 Brian Eno - Regiment 3:00
08 The Beta Band - It's Not Too Beautiful 6:33
09 David Holmes - Rodney Yates 6:09
10 Fila Brazillia - Nature Boy 3:54
11 Unforscene - Nuclear Symphony 4:51
12 Nightmares on Wax - Nuits 5:36
13 Outside - Blue Skies 6:14
14 Kelis - Suspended 4:29
15 The Swingle Singers - Prelude and Fugue in C Minor 1:48
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
1 comment:
Very thankful to listen to this again. You're a big dck in a land of digital eunuchs. Kudos
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