“We knew when we went into the studio, we were going to make the best record that we could make – the best album of our career. And we did. We took it to another level.” – Emilio Castillo With a landmark 50th anniversary album, 2018’s Soul Side of Town, still visible in their rearview mirror, one would think Tower of Power (or TOP, as it is more often referred to by its global legion of fans), the much-lauded creators of their own horn-based, hybrid brand of East Bay soul/funk/R&B/rock, would take a well-deserved breather. But that is not in the band’s DNA, nor that of its founder and ringmaster, tenor saxophonist and bandleader Emilio Castillo. Beginning with East Bay Grease, their 1970 album debut on legendary impresario Bill Graham’s San Francisco Records, the tireless unit has released 26 albums, been responsible for such classic hit tracks as “What Is Hip?,” “You’re Still a Young Man,” “So Very Hard To Go” and “Down To The Nightclub,” among so many others. TOP’s horn section, the heart of the band, have long been sought after sidemen, appearing on recordings by top artists ranging from Elton John, Aerosmith and Bonnie Raitt to Otis Redding, Santana and Heart. TOP paved the way for other high-powered brass rock/R&B hit artists of the 70s like Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
The second single from the forthcoming album “Break Free” finally sees the light of the day on Tesla Groove International Recordings through a beautiful video by Max Cavalli Cocchi who has put on images the real meaning of the song. As Jason says: “In our society addiction is something most of us, if not all of us, have to deal with. Directly or indirectly. Some times this addiction is to the detriment of ourselves, at times others, and at times both. Amongst the many addiction there’s the worse of them all: MONEY! How much is enough? When is it too much? No one person should be expected to save the world but, If you have more money than a man could ever spend in a lifetime, then the people on your team should not struggle to afford the necessities of life while working full time”. Of course we all know that this is called “system” but many of you will agree with me we could add the word “failing” to it. With this song we celebrate Davide Salzano entering the team with his Fender Precision and VideoMax at the graphic controls. Huge thanks to anyone contributing to the making of this release, let’s celebrate the failure all together “Sitting On Top Of The World”!
Speedometer, the UK’s premier funk band, started out in 1999 playing classic funk tunes by artists such as The Meters and The JB’s in small clubs across the Southeast of England. In 2000 they released their first single, “Soul Safari” on Soul Fire, the seminal New York label. This was soon followed with a slew of fine limited pressing releases on Timmion and Kennel Klub. Their opening release for Freestyle was a 7″ featuring a blistering funk cover of Beyonce’s ”Work it Out”, with Ria Currie on vocals. Over the years, Speedometer have worked with a host of US funk legends including Joe Quarterman, Eddie Bo, Marva Whitney, Martha High, Sharon Jones, James Bell (Highlighters), Lee Fields, Billy Wooten and Robert Moore. All were blown away by Speedometer’s authenticity and dedication to faithfully creating that original soul-funk sound. Our Kind of Movement is Speedometer’s 5th album release for Freestyle (excluding two compilations of archive releases) and sees Vanessa Jamie and Najwa Ezzaher join James Junior on vocal duties. On this album, the band re-explore their own diverse influences combining the heritage of Latin Funk in ‘Funky Amigo’, Afro-Beat on ‘Abuja Sunrise’, Indian Psychedelic on ‘Kashmir’, and Northern Soul on ‘We Gave Up Too Soon”. There is, of course, a hefty dose of new heavy weight funk and soul tunes, as you would expect.
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