Travis Biggs Solar Funk (140G 'Solar Speckle' Marbled Translucent Vinyl)
Label | RECORD STORE DAY |
---|---|
Format | LP |
Release Date | 20 April 2024 |
Catalogue Number | DEMREC1211 |
Additional Info | This is an RSD24 release which will be available to buy on a first come, first served basis from Some Great Reward on Saturday 20th April, strictly 1 copy per person.All stock remaining at 8pm on Monday 22nd April will be available to buy online. |
Available on vinyl for the 1st time for RSD 2024!, Pressed on Solar Speckle Vinyl, Also features the seminal ‘Tibetan Serenity’, a track with huge crossover appeal in the Hip-Hop / cratedigger scene after J Dilla’s sample of the track in ‘Jay Dee 39’
First ever vinyl reissue of this often sampled grail, released by multi-instrumentalist and keyboardist Travis Biggs
140G 'Solar Speckle' Marbled Translucent Vinyl
Travis Bigg’s first album, released in 1976, was called Challenge. Initially pressed on independent Detroit imprint TB&C enterprises, the record had little impact on the wider landscape of contemporary black music – save for local radio play. Three years after the release of Challenge, Source Records picked up on Biggs’ underrated talents, a multi instrumentalist and synth merchant whose list of instrumental credits on this release numbers 14, from harp to clavinet. Biggs would also rack up writing, production and instrumental credits among an assortment of funk, soul and disco names from Linda Clifford, Betty Lou Landreth, Isaac Hayes, Hamilton Bohannon and Michael Henderson. Solar Funk would eventually be released on Source, a mixture of new compositions and revamped versions of earlier material from Challenge, such as After The Storm (previously recorded as a cover of the Steve Miller Loft classic ‘Fly Like An Eagle’) and ‘Ven A Bailar Conmigo’, a Latin lilted stepper that too existed in a more stripped back guise on Challenge. Solar Funk also features ‘Tibetian Serenity’ – a track that was revived in the hip-hop scene as sampled by J Dilla in ‘Jay Dee 39’. Expressive, ethereal shades of spiritual jazz linger, with mandolin and harp imbibing an Alice Coltrane / Dorothy Ashby aesthetic. The intro to Tibetian Serenity would also be sampled by Italo-house impresarios Black Box in their rendition of the Earth, Wind and Fire anthem Fantasy.