Phil Upchurch - Sitar Soul

Phil Upchurch - Sitar Soul

Upchurch fills a hole with super noodles smothered in clattering percussion.

The Animated Egg 'Inside Looking Out'

The Animated Egg 'Inside Looking Out'

Furred-up psychedelic surf excursion from The Animated Egg.

The Shadows 'The Rise And Fall Of Flingle Blunt'

The Shadows 'The Rise And Fall Of Flingle Blunt'

With the Wimbledon tennis championships kicking off today, thoughts momentarily leap back to the competition's standout musical event (read: horror show), when cheese merchant Sir Cliff Pilchard hijacked centre court during rain-stop-play in 1996.  Talk about a captive audience - the call for a sniper was strong that day. The Shadows were his backing band many moons ago, but also struck out on their own to peddle a strong line in skiffle, surf instrumentals. Hank Marvin was the engine room of the band, with a totally singular and vital guitar sound heard on classics like 'Wonderful Land' and 'Apache'. This is a cool, instrumental stroller of a record, unshackled from the creeping schmaltz of Sir Cliff's bogus musical visions.

Santana 'Jam In E'

Santana 'Jam In E'

This is what Santana were all about - explosive, percussive jamming. Proper rug-swaying, freak-your-shit-out rock. Taken from the 'Acapulco Sunrise' demo recordings from 1968, when big ropey perms and bandanas were most definitely 'in'.

Episode Six 'Jak D'Or'

Episode Six 'Jak D'Or'

Relatively obscure B-side from a band formed in Harrow (some members of whom would go on to play for dodgy prog outfit Deep Purple). This is a simple psych jam with seismic drum breaks that you could imagine being put to quite good use in a TV advert for a high-strength continental lager.

El Gusano 'Work Your Hand To The Bone'

El Gusano 'Work Your Hand To The Bone'

Tex-Mex psych and soul instrumental with weird mimimoog inflections and a super laidback feel. El Gusano's concept album 'Fantasia Del Barrio' was botched together during a few cerveza and bolgnese sandwich-fuelled days in the mid-seventies and has just recently been re-released by Heavy Light Records.

New Life 'New Life'

New Life 'New Life'

With spring more or less on its way here, and new life just waiting to burst from the ground, here's an aptly titled cosmic boogie instrumental from the obscure 'Space Oddities Vol. 2' compiled by Alexis Le Tan and Jess. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but the overt progginess and intergalactic pretensions are tempered by some neat guitar work.

Son Seals 'Hot Sauce'

Son Seals 'Hot Sauce'

Searing blues guitar heat from one of the unsung heroes of the discipline. If you're going to embark on a 'curry challenge' (ask in the comments section for rules and regs) then this is the kind of tunage you need to to help focus and pass the finish line.

Steve Cropper, Pop Staples & Albert King 'Opus De Soul'

Steve Cropper, Pop Staples & Albert King 'Opus De Soul'

With ingredients as strong as they were for this particular brew of jam, the results were possibly in danger of canceling each other out. Fortunately this wasn't the case as the young Steve Cropper (of Booker T & The MGs and Blues Brothers fame) gelled with head honcho of The Staples and bluesman Albert King for a rare old, 3-way guitar jamboree.

Earl Hooker 'Two Bugs In A Rug'

Earl Hooker 'Two Bugs In A Rug'

Earl Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi as first cousin to John Lee, but moved to Chicago at the age of one. He spent the lion's share of his productive life playing blitzing, shit-hot guitar as a session man in the studio and on the road. There are scarce few recordings of Earl, but this album (called 'There's A Fungus Amung Us' due to advancing Tuberculosis in the bluesman in the early '70s) represents some of his best sides. The entirely instrumental album features a ragged patchwork of steel slide guitar, rugged rhythm section, stabbing organs, and sax, which serve to knock the edges off an underlying blues framework to create an altogether more funky and amiable monster. The slightly incongruous sleeve artwork by cult cartoonist Robert Crumb adds to the ramshackle charm.

Carol Kaye 'Bass Catch'

Carol Kaye 'Bass Catch'

Just recently discovered a killer little EP of recordings by bass ace Carol Kaye called 'Picking Up The E-String'. The force was strong with Carol, out-funking pretty much the entire field of players and clocking up an incredible 10,000 recording sessions during her 55 year career. Responsible for laying down the low-end on hits like 'Good Vibrations' for the Beach Boys and Ray Charles' dancefloor burner 'I Don't Need No Doctor,' she was and still is the ultimate electric bass goddess.

Peter Green 'Funky Chunky'

Peter Green 'Funky Chunky'

Poor old P.G. Arguably the most naturally gifted guitarist the UK has ever produced, he never realised his full potential due to a number of setbacks in the mental health department. Having played with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and founded Fleetwood Mac, Green took a turn for the worse in the early 70's and spent the rest of the decade well and truly in the wilderness. He returned in 1979 to record 'In The Skies,' an album full of beguiling majesty, religious overtones and trademark laid-back guitar styles. Check out 'Just For You', 'In The Skies' and 'Apostle' for more outstanding fret work.

Brian Auger 'Listen Here'

Brian Auger 'Listen Here'

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month from Brian Auger with added slaps, kicks, snares, organ and wild guitar noodlings for good measure. 

Shuggie Otis 'Bootie Cooler'

Shuggie Otis 'Bootie Cooler'

A snippet of Hammond-funk rock from the son of Johnny Otis off his first solo LP 'Here Comes Shuggie Otis'. He used to wear fake moustaches and sunglasses to get into clubs aged 12 and played bass on Zappa's iconic, parp-march 'Peaches En Regalia'. He also wrote 'Strawberry Letter 23' as covered by Brothers Johnson, and obviously had fret skills to burn.

Jeff Beck 'Brush With The Blues' (Live)

Jeff Beck 'Brush With The Blues' (Live)

The man hardly needs an introduction, so this is more just a personal favourite from the Jeff Beck archives. There's actually a point in this tune when, with the right amount of booze in the system and the volume cranked to the proverbial '11', it might actually be possible to levitate or even fly.

Joe Walsh 'County Fair' (Mindless Boogie edit)

Joe Walsh 'County Fair' (Mindless Boogie edit)

A first for the Danceflawed blog in that this is, shock horror, an EDIT of an original record. Not a habit to be encouraged too readily, but this is a corker from a few years ago on the mostly very excellent Mindless Boogie re-edit series. Joe Walsh's own habits were many, including hot-wiring his guitar to get that trademark 'attack' sound. He also took a barrow-load of drugs and drunk the equivalent of the Llangollen reservoir in bourbon. He was the epitome of the consumptive rock god and his career went into decline for a bit after joining The Eagles. He's back on it now though, twisting old melons with licks of liquid metal.

Harvey Mandel 'Long Wait'

Harvey Mandel 'Long Wait'

Sometime member of Canned Heat, Harvey 'The Snake' Mandel was one of the first electric guitarists to employ the two-handed fretboard tapping technique. His solo career allowed him to experiment more with his playing. This track is lifted off his first solo album 'Christo Redentor' from 1968 and Mandel's noodlings are backed by a nice boogie swing feel. Like flying over a traffic jam on a magic carpet, or something