Pacha Massive Live on KPFK’s Melting Pot: August 1, 2010

Pacha Massive out of New York City were the first in-studio guests for KPFK’s Melting Pot. Pacha Massive consists primarily of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists Nova & Maya, here joined by vocalist and flute player Monica. They’ve released a couple of records on Nacional, 2007’s All Good Things and 2009’s If You Want It.

In our interview we chatted about their love of Los Angeles, their distinctive mix of styles and sounds and a bit about the recording process. They also performed two songs, “Your Love” and “If You Want It” in our studio, with Nova and Monica on vocals, Nova on guitar, Monica on flute (ala Rahsaan Roland Kirk playing and singing!) and Maya on percussion which as you can see from the picture was improvised on the spot using one of our trash cans! Looking forward to bringing them back at a later date with the full band and hopefully a much better sound person (I simply don’t cut it as a sound man…)

Enjoy,

Michael

Our first show of August also had a historic first for Melting Pot, the first in studio performance and it comes from NYC’s Pacha Massive! Below you can catch audio of the whole show (slightly less quality than normal, this comes from the recently reinstituted KPFK Audio Archvies), I think I’ll have a separate post for this performance, that will just include the interview+performance from Pacha Massive (and hopefully many more artists as the years go passing by). Also in the show, new music from M.I.A., Best Coast, Myron & E with the Soul Investigators, Cooly G, Budos Band and more. Show opens with a most of my set from Saturday’s Make It Funky Fest 2010 (a post on that to follow) and closes with a tribute set to Melvin Bliss, whose “Synthetic Substitution” is one of the seminal breakbeats of all-time. Tune in and tell a friend, audio will be up for a month from today…

Melting Pot on KPFK #10: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #10: Second Hour

Playlist: 8-1-2010

{opening theme} Booker T. & the MGs – Melting Pot – 7” (Stax)

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Make It Funky 2010 set:
Lafayette Afro Rock Band – Hihache – Voodounon (Editions Makossa)
Toni Tornado – Podes Crer Amizade – Toni Tornado (Odeon)
Ray Camacho Group – Si Se Puede – Salsa Chicana (Californio)
Ruby Andrews – You Made A Believer Out Of Me – 7” (Zodiac)
The Trinikas – Remember Me – 7” (Pearce)
The New Holidays – Maybe So, Maybe No – 7” (Soul Hawk)
Cymande – Bra – Cymande (Janus)

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Myron & E with the Soul Investigators – On Broadway – 7” (Timmion)
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble – Rainbow – Heritage EP (Choice Cuts)
Shawn Lee – Christopher Walken On Sunshine – Sing A Song (Ubiquity)
The Pepper Pots – Dream Guy – Now! (Black Pepper)
The Breakestra – Back At the Boathouse – Dusk Til Dawn (Strut)

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Best Coast – Summer Mood – Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
Versus – Lose That Dress / Yeah You – Secret Swingers (Teen Beat)
Budos Band – Rite Of The Ancients – Budos Band III (Daptone)
The Comrades – Bullwalk – The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (Soundway)

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Pacha Massive Live Interview & Performance

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Pacha Massive – Lejos Cercas – If You Want It (Nacional)
M.I.A. – Story To Be Told – MAYA (N.E.E.T. / Interscope)
Cooly G – Up In My Head – 12” (Hyperdub)

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Melvin Bliss Tribute Set:
Melvin Bliss – Syntehtic Substitution – 7” (Sunburst)
Ultramagnetic MC’s – Ego Trippin’ – Critical Beatdown (Next Plateau)
Public Enemy – Don’t Believe The Hype – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (Def Jam)
De La Soul – Potholes In My Lawn – 3 Feet High & Rising (Tommy Boy)
The Pharcyde – Ya Mama – Bizarre Ride II (To) The Pharcyde (Delicious Vinyl)
Gangstarr feat. Nice & Smooth – Dwyck – Hard To Earn (Chrysalis)

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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Batar (Kemado)

For this week’s show I decided to switch things up a bit. Most weeks I do this show, I spend hours upon hours figuring out how I’m going to fill up the 2 hours I have with you each week. My focus generally is on new music, with probably 70-80% of the music being things that have recently been released or are upcoming and the rest being classic material that connects to these new sounds in one way or another. As a new tradition (and since the show is so new, any tradition would be new), I decided to dedicate the last Sunday of the month to vinyl, think of it as a “Dig Deep” edition of Melting Pot. I don’t plan out these all vinyl shows, just bring in a couple boxes of records and see what develops. This first go round, there was a fair amount of music that I’ve featured here in the Dig Deep section, which makes sense, since all the things I feature here are in my collection. In the future I’ll likely be bringing in guest DJs to spin a guest set or two all on vinyl, stay tuned for more on that in August.

At the top of the second hour, this week’s show also had our first guests at Melting Pot, Chad and Derek, the organizers behind  Make It Funky: Music & Arts Festival in Chinatown (DTLA) July 31st! I’ll be posting more on “Make It Funky” this week and next, since I’ll be doing a little mini set on the main stage late in the proceedings. Unfortunately, I had double technology issues, first with DJ equipment, which robbed us of a guest DJ set from the ReMitch of Soul Sessions, and then my recording of the show blanked out just about at the end of the interview (which explains why it ends so abrubtly on the audio that’s here), but I just did some quick edits to bring everything back together, I think we only missed a minute or two, just the round-up and thank yous. We’re back to regular programming with a bunch of new releases next week and potentially a performance or two…Audio is up for a month, enjoy the show and make sure to spread the good word.

Melting Pot on KPFK #9: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #9: Second Hour

Playlist: 7-25-2010

{opening theme} Boris Gardiner – Melting Pot – Is What’s Happening (Dynamic)

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Harvey Mandel – Wade In The Water – Cristo Redentor (Phillips)
The Purpose – Dustcracks, Bugs & Roaches – The Purpose (ABC)
Gal Costa – Hotel Das Estrellas – Le Gal (Phillips)
Barry Goldberg – Sittin’ In Circles – Reunion (Buddah)
The Heliocentrics – Space Time Girl – 12” (Now-Again)

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The Spectrals – Don’t Mind – 7” (Slumberland)
John Barry – …And How To Get It – The Knack: Original Soundtrack (United Artists)
Eva Pilarova – Vazky – EVA (Supraphon)
Johnny Hammond – Call On Me – Gambler’s Life (Salvation)
Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’77 – Love Music – Love Music (Bell)

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3 Titans – College – 7” (Dunham)
Mandrill – Fencewalk / Hagalo – Composite Truth (Polydor)
Eddie Palmieri – Oyele Que Te Conviene – Unfinished Masterpiece (Coco)

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Joe Farrell – Upon This Rock / Seven Seas – Upon This Rock (CTI)
Interview with the organizers of Make It Funky!: Music & Arts Festival (July 31st in Downtown LA/Chinatown)

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Myron & E with the Soul Investigators – On Broadway – 7” (Timmion)
Jimmy McGriff – The Now Thing – Soul Sugar (Capitol)
Sugar Billy Garner – Super Duper Love – Super Duper Love (Fast Track)
Toni Tornado – Aposta – Toni Tornado (Odeon)
Tim Weisberg – Tyme Cube – Hurtwood Edge (A&M)

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The How – Polly – 7” (555 / Slumberland)
The Sorrows – Teenage Letter – Take A Heart (PRT)
Canned Heat – Whiskey Headed Woman No. 2 – Boogie With Canned Heat (Liberty)
Reflection Eternal feat. Mos Def & Mr. Man – Fortified Live – 12” (Rawkus)
Cactus – You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover – Cactus (Atco)

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{closing theme} Kenny Baker – Mississippi Waltz – Plays Bill Monroe (County)

Side Dishes #1 With Oliver Wang

This week we had the debut (right at the start of the second hour) of a new monthly feature on Melting Pot at KPFK, a set put together by Oliver Wang of Soul Sides. Oliver is an old friend from back at Berkeley, where we both went to graduate school and worked at KALX Berkeley, the freeform radio station there. He’s been a music journalist for a decade or more and runs one of the best audioblogs around in Soul Sides. Every third Sunday of the month, “Side Dishes” will feature several of Oliver’s picks, this week including several smashingly good compilations from Soundway records and Vampi Soul.  “Side Dishes” is also available as a podcast from Oliver’s website if you click here. 

The rest of the show features new music from Best Coast, Rakaa (of Dilated Peoples), M.I.A., Adam Franklin, The Pepper Pots, Tita Lima and more.  Next week we have the organizers of Make It Funky (Funk Rumble Block Party Pt. 2!), coming in to discuss what should be one of the summer’s best concerts, currently set for July 31st in Los Angeles’ Chinatown.  I’ll also be doing a vinyl-only show next week, which I think will probably be a tradition for the end of the month from here on out.  Audio for this show will be here for a month, so listen in and tell a friend about Melting Pot on KPFK!

Melting Pot on KPFK #8: First Hour
Melting Pot on KPFK #8: Second Hour

Playlist: 7-18-2010
{opening theme} Booker T. & the MGs – Melting Pot – Melting Pot (Stax)

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Rastus – Sailin’ Easy – Rastus (GRT)
Menahan Street Band – The Contender – Make The Road By Walking (Dunham)
Quantic – Dub Y Guaguaganco – Dog With A Rope (Tru Thoughts)
Sahr Nagaujah & Antibalas – Upside Down – Fela! (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Knitting Factory)
Cochemea Gastelum – Guardian Angel – The Electric Sound Of Johnny Arrow (MRI)

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The Pepper Pots – Real Tru Love – Now! (Black Pepper)
Jackie Lee – Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide – 7” (Mirwood)
Neverever – Blue Genes – Angelic Swells (Slumberland)
Tita Lima – Mundo Pequeno – Possibiliadades (Label A)
Foreign Exchange – Take Off The Blues – Leave It All Behind (Halls Of Justus)
Orgone – Mantanza – Cali Fever (Ubiquity)

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Rakaa feat. Mad Lion – Observatory – Crown Of Thorns (Decon)
Connie Price & the Keystones feat. Aloe Blacc – Tell Me Something – Tell Me Something (Ubiquity)
Saravah Soul – Alforria – Cultura Impura (Tru Thoughts)
Soul Investigators – On Broadway – 7” (Timmion)

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Side Dishes with Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides.com #1:

{theme} The Nite-Liters – Down & Dirty – 7” (RCA)

The Funkees – Breakthrough – The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (Soundway)
Lijadu Sisters – Life’s Gone Down Low – The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (Soundway)
Cumbia Siglo XX – Nagal Pegale – Palenque Palenque: Chapeta, Criolla And Afro Roots In Colombia 1975-1991 (Soundway)
Wganda Kenya – Pim Pom – Palenque Palenque: Chapeta, Criolla And Afro Roots In Colombia 1975-1991 (Soundway)
Los Destellos – Guajira Sicodelica – Cumbia Beat: Experimental Guitar Driven Tropical Sounds From Peru 1968-1976 (Vampi-Soul)

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Best Coast – Boyfriend – Crazy For You (Mexican Summer)
The Spectrals – 7th Date – 7” (Slumberland)
Adam Franklin – Carousel City – I Could Sleep For A Thousand Years (Second Motion)
Sleepy Sun – Lord – Embrace (ATP)
Total Babe – Country – Heatwave EP (So Tm)

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M.I.A. – Tell Me Why – MAYA (N.E.E.T. / Interscope)
Pollyn – If I Chose You – This Little Night (Self-Released)
Alpha – Dim – The Impossible Thrill (Melankolic)
Francoiz Breut – 2013 – A l’aveuglette (T-Rec)

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{closing theme} Dungen – C. Visar Vagen – Tio Batar (Kemado)