Another Monday, another trip to Hollywood; what a way to start the week. Having just picked up the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack album last week, I was on the lookout for any twelve inch singles that would be released and was rewarded with the extended mix of "Axel F." Listening to it today, I feel no love for the extended remix. The song is better in short doses as heard in the movie. The Grandmaster Flash album was the turntable legend's first after the dissolution of the Furious Five. (wikipedia says this album didn't came out until April but I know better.) I seem to recall there were maybe two tracks on it I really liked but without hearing it again, I can't be sure. The Rain Forest album was one of those albums I discovered when it was played in-store. It fit into the smooth jazz phase I was in at the time that included the Yellowjackets first album, Kenny G's G Force and Jeff Lorber's In The Heat Of The Night (below).
"Axel F." (12") - Harold Faltermeyer (1985)
They Said It Couldn't Be Done - Grandmaster Flash (1985)
Rain Forest - Paul Hardcastle (1985)
None of these reside upon the Vinyl Wall. I have the extended version of "Axel F." on two different CD series. They Said It Couldn't Be Done does not exist in my CD stash and the CD I have of the Rain Forest album is a vinyl rip.
The TOTAL TALLY:
records bought: 81
money spent: $463.16
Ah, Paul Hardcastle - I got into a few of his albums myself in the mid-80's. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather hear a 30 minute remix of "Axel F" than one minute of any Kenny G song.
ReplyDeleteI'm unfamiliar with that Hardcastle album, is it more like his hit single "Nineteen" or his stuff with the Jazzmasters?
Mark, I give Hardcastle's "Rain Forest" album my highest recommendation (for whatever that's worth). Although it's almost entirely instrumental (minus the gimmicky samples utilized in "19"), it's not what I'd call a smooth-jazz album. It's has more of an electro-funk vibe throughout... Definitely cut from the same cloth as Herbie Hancock's "Rockit". Put simply, if you liked "19", you'd LOVE "Rain Forest". Not sure how many votes it got on Herc's 'Top 10 Albums Of The '80s' poll, but it certainly got mine.
DeleteThe man has been duly banned from my collection for his musical sins but that failed to erase my memories of G Force - it was unlike anything else in his oeuvre.
ReplyDelete