Our fifth collaboration with The Link Quartet is perhaps the most ambitious Hammondbeat production to date. In our universe "Hotel Constellation" sits beautifully on the ears with "The Origin Of Captain Hammond" and Futuro Seven's "The Oppenheimer Transmissions" while threading and paralleling the space opera "Barbarella", yet takes a giant leap for the funk and the groove. Miss Modus deconstructs the ego and the Id with lyrical analysis and lifts up the soul with her undeniable voice. Apollo, Majo, Renzo, and Pato provide the intergalactic playground to release the spirit and destiny of humankind. Records you will want to prepare for YOUR trip: HBR014 "COBOL" by Paolo Apollo Negri HBR013 "4" by The Link Quartet HBL011 "Sounds From The Kitten Casino" by Modus HBB018 "The Oppenheimer Transmissions" by Futuro Seven HBR010 "The Origin Of Captain Hammond" by Captain Hammond HBR007 "The Living Eye" by Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
"Lightswitch" has that Beatles meets Nilsson vibe that is a completely new approach for Paolo, becoming the first thread in a much bigger fabric moving toward his 4th album in 2013. The concept comes from lyricist Milo Scaglioni who Paolo last worked with in their first band NICE PRICE 15 years ago. This side has a melancholy, yet inspirationally upbeat, vocal and is ripe with electronic atmosphere, backed with a deep soul conga percussion and accents of simmering synth, guitar, and bass.
“Le Cirque du MIDI” is the tether to 2011 with the completion of Paolo's first solo trilogy on "COBOL" [HBR-014] and the rebirth of The Link Quartet with "4" [HBR-013]. The melody riffs off LQ4's "Dancing 'round the Walnut Tree" with a bombastic electronic twist and relentless percussion that right-turns into a psychedelia bridge with heavy funk guitar / electric piano jazz fusion, before slamming you back down in the centre ring.
Hammondbeat Records celebrates its 10th year of some of the greatest funk-soul-jazz-rock productions. Look for our digital retrospective collections this Fall, including a remastered vocal collection from Paolo's solo albums, to coincide with the anniversary of "Beat.It", while we prepare for the 5th Link Quartet album coming next Spring.
This single is released exclusively on limited edition 7” vinyl (250 copies).
ARTIST: THE LINK QUARTET TITLE: 4 CAT#: HBR-013 CD RELEASE DATE: APRIL 19, 2011 DIGITAL RELEASE DATE: APRIL 12, 2011
After three mind-blowing funk-tastic rock albums (Evolution, 2006 / Italian Playboys, 2004 / Beat.It, 2002) and two US tours, The Link Quartet took a break which led organist extraordinaire Paolo “Apollo” Negri toward two solo records (A Bigger Tomorrow, 2007 / The Great Anything, 2009) and Hammondbeat into a much expanded relationship with this prolific master.They conspired that The Link Quartet would rise again when the time was right.THAT TIME IS NOW!
“4” is the culmination of everything Paolo and Hammondbeat have produced in the last few years, from vintage soul to their own unique brand of funk-jazz-rock, but squeezed into the raw, hyperactive, live-band genius of The Link Quartet.This is modern power-pop combined with R&B rock sensibility that separates “written songs” from “incomprehensible noise”.
With Paolo taking over the band from retired founders Link Cardini and Tony Face he recruited Majo Murtas (guitar), Pato Maffi (drums), and Arnaldo Dodici (vocals) who’ve given not only the solid skills always central to a Link Quartet album, but also bring a fresh style necessary to stand riff-to-riff with their retro-contemporaries.French soul lyrics, hard-rock guitar energy, jazz drummer work ethic, Renzo's body rumbling bass, and blistering organ riffs all come together into a socially conscious “power to the working man” party.
“4” also features guest appearances from the growing Hammondbeat extended family.The Austin-based Hellfire Horns and vocalist Tameca Jones from Flyjack’s “On the One” EP lay on the Texas barbecue on a few tunes, and organist Simon Rigot shows off his extensive sitar skill for contrasting eastern flavor on “Big Peach”, as well as Paolo’s own expanding arsenal of assorted electronic and percussive blends that sets a Link Quartet album that much more ahead of the rest.
Also available HB7-07: exclusively on vinyl are the original raw versions of “Fast Girls & Sexy Cars” b/w “Drummore” which were toured extensively through Europe until an album had reached a boiling point and the “4” sessions commenced.
Hammondbeat has been making records since 2002 and feature some of the most outstanding music preservationists on the planet.The rules are simple: create something new, don’t be afraid of playing notes, and drum machines are for demos only.Hammondbeat releases feature the superior sound that can only be found when utilizing analog recording techniques and the best digital engineers.“Just because you can make a record on your PC, doesn’t mean you should.”
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Greetings Hammondbeat fans. You may have heard about the new Link Quartet album "4"? Well, it is here (or at least at the point of this writing it will be here tomorrow)!
Now, officially the album is not released until April 19, and many of you know that we always launch it a few weeks earlier than the rest of the world here at Hammondbeat.com.
Well, things went so amazingly well with the factory schedule that we are dropping it down even earlier than ever before - as in today ('er, tomorrow)!! And if that weren't enough, we're even selling it for only $10 through January 31 at which point it will go up to a still excellent price of $12.
So, you should all know the LQ sound by now...or at least think you do. Now take that experience and double it. Heck, let's get aggressive and triple it. This isn't some band just making another go of it. Think of it more like they got hit with gamma rays and have spent the last 4 years training their new found super powers. Life altering I'd say. Now get yourself one (or two) and fly!
The complete chapter thirteen of THE HISTORY OF HAMMONDBEAT a socialized poem by GIBRAN
The Earth mother is freakishly ablaze with larcenous intrigue and discordant dissertation by the fattest of cats, polled and controlled by the wettest of rats. “How can this be as enlightened as we / dreaming the life and living the dream?” The beat of this manifesto 4our and those horns of Hellfire raze these facts into ravishing form: The True. As the soul grooves and body flows, the mind excogitates harmonious, candid belle epoque.
4our scores and underscores the progressive impulse to reconcile sunsets with moonbeams, banish apologies of apoplexy, celebrate the reunion of abstract into expression, and tease the tangiest lime into the sweetest coconut. The sun is reborn (again) – the citizen takes another breath from the forever-and-ever and the God-construct is like all surfer-modal: “Whoa! Dude, we were made to make this.”
From one modicum of stardust to another I relay this profane auditory aesthetic, distinctly 4our, as one of an incalculable number of random stations that this yearlong reconnaissance could evince – but fatefully the singularity that fearlessly exemplifies the universal Hammondbeat state of mind.
4our is consummate, humanely exquisite, and the civilized rush:push toward and beyond social divine.
^ Freedom ^ Justice ^ Equality ^ Solidarity ^
For Kat, Anna, and Theresa : 3 that sum the 4 of me.
"Physician heal thyself", or something like that is how the saying goes. As a computer systems designer by day, it seems that I'm the last to benefit from my particular talents, complicated further by some of those events that go under the category of "LIFE". But none of that has kept the shipments from going out on time, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the rather vacant homepage at www.hammondbeat.com! That is all about to change...
We have a new navigation underway that will refocus an expanding catalog in a more helpful way. It's going to take the next 3 months to get it out there completely, but we will be making incremental changes to the catalog as we move along to our final goal. Chalk it up to a database design that has gone about 2 years passed its expiration date. In the meantime a little news for you to groove on:
October is our 8th anniversary since the release of "Beat.It" by The Link Quartet. In honor of that event, for this entire month every HB release is priced at $8 (or less). That's as much as $5 off the original price. Does this mean that next year there will be $9 each sale? No! So here's a chance to get a really great deal on every CD we've produced all at once. The next change to the site will go live on November 1, so when that happens you'll know the sale has ended!!
Next April will be the release of the long-desired "The Link Quartet IV" CD that went into production this summer. We've got a third of it finished (mind-blowing), a third of it in post-production (even without the bass and horns in place these guys sound more complete than most of what's going on out there), and the last few tracks get recorded next week. Artwork is underway from the graphic genius of Craig "zilla" Kristensen, who also happens to the brains behind Fred Leslie's missing Link. We have special promotion planned in January with the launch of the new site.
Thanks ever so much for your patience and continued support.
If you were on your way to the Hammondbeat Forums and landed here, please read on. If you are already a member of the Hammondbeat Blog, worry not, what follows does not directly affect this place.
Well, it's been a very long time since we created the Hammondbeat Forums, and even longer since JTQgroove. But it is time to bring that old platform to an end and focus on new things. I suppose there was a lost innocence when Ryan and I decided to put our emphasis on the record label several years ago and move away from something that was dominated by a single band...a band we pointed out at the time was not even on Hammondbeat, but we were painfully aware that this caused many to abandon what we had built up and for that alone I regret the decision, but while I will always have a fond spot for The James Taylor Quartet, for better or worse they too have transformed and I'm sure JTQgroove would have gone to news heaven by now anyhow.
So, with the domination of digital media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I have noticed that the forum world has become something of an antique, and Hammondbeat's forum hasn't had any serious activity for well over a year and is quite frankly a bit embarrassing if not down right depressing. Other forums I once followed have become cesspools of hate and sniping, something I'm proud to say HB never suffered, but at the risk of becoming a hacker's target for pornography and dope peddling, it's pretty clear the HB image is in jeopardy if I just let it sit there untended.
So, about a year ago I started this blog. Though it hasn't been exploited as of yet, it was created to replace the "news" portion of the Hammondbeat Forums, and hopefully many of you that miss the dialogue of the forums will find reason to join in.
I will be back in 2-3 weeks to get things fired up...Peace and the ever lovin' Groove...
An abridged excerpt from chapter twelve of THE HISTORY OF HAMMONDBEAT An accounting of the truth by Kahlil Breithaupt
The addicted man desecrates his own potential; the patriotic man defends his perceived entitlement to possessions and control; the inventive man perpetually tears down and rebuilds his God to reflect the latest, sexy fad; the intelligent man is confused, ashamed, and critical of his very existence; but the artistic man has burned to learn, think and thrive in The Great Anything.
This man found power from his First Mother who provided, preserved, and restored…she who was advocate, counselor, nurse… and now friend. She was the unrelenting teacher of reason; guardian of the door between him and the silliness of the road he would travel to and through The Great Anything. She instinctively endured the inevitable abandonment and he is acutely aware and humbled by that blessed and blooded sacrifice.
He surrendered two tremendous women to The Great Anything this year: his Grand Mother who raised and toured the world with him those many, many wonderful summers past; now his Second Mother, who saved his Father from self-destruction, returning to him a hero and mentor forged from a superior framework of knowledge, compassion, and forgiveness - a foundation that serves to hold the morality of progress to the higher standard of truth and justice than some man-made, flexible contract with faith in a mad, chaotic, imperialistic post-moderne world.
He continues The Great Anything with his partner and very breath of life. She will hold his hand at the many graves ahead, wipe the tears from his heart with her limitless smiles, and one bittersweet day complete a superior history worthy of vigilant remembrance and celebration. Their daughters discover their own strength and will soon selflessly tend the continuance of The Great Anything and vanquish the cynicisms and treacheries frequented upon that tradition that makes the pursuit of life possible.
For Bonnie and Vina: Yatahe!
Pre-published from the forthcoming liner-notes of Paolo "Apollo" Negri's "The Great Anything" (January, 2010).
Hello groovy ladies and gents. It seems I'm rapidly approaching the one-year anniversary of my last commentary (The Diplomats of Solid Sound featuring the Diplomettes, May '08), and like many of you victims of a manipulated and mutilated economy I've had to put work before play to inhumane levels...and as it turns out running a label alone is not as party-licious and fancy-free as you would rightly imagine. The same can be said for those indie bands that we know and love and must throw our modest support whenever we can.
What keeps me driving head-first (and somewhat blind and dumb, but never deaf!) into that horizon of an ever-flattening world is simply the mainlining high of records like "1975" by the effervescent Fay Hallam Trinity. To be blunt, if you can't be swept away by the mod-gospely-goodness of this record or its gut-punching predecessor "Realm" (2006), then I fear you you may be a moron, drink too much, or consume dangerous amounts of sugar and should have that checked out ASAP. But let's assume that you are genius for a moment (which I know you are) and are just a cautious person that won't go a couple of days without food in exchange for a truly worthy pursuit...see a theme emerges to my opening remark!
Food (especially sugar) just makes you fat which leads to being fat in the head and likely to listen to the radio where you will be brain-washed into liking and buying (or even stealing) crap which leads to being a moron and hungry anyway...it's a vicious circle that will impact the lives of friends and family...and you should never hurt the ones you love!!!
FHT makes you smart and happy (and occassionally a little sad) but above all thoughtful and introspective (love, loss, redemption, sprirituality, and more!) which leads to ideas, which leads to food for the body and the soul. It's an investment people...a stimulous package of monumental possibilities. "1975" very well might save your life...I'm living proof.
The Link Quartet is the greatest Hammond beat band in the world and during their 3-year break demand has remained high. Resulting in: 3 compilations (Keep It Moving / Evolution / Long Live The Link) of out-of-print and unreleased tracks; continuous appearances on various artist’s packages from the UK to Japan; and a full-on assault of digital-download reissues (highlighted by even more out of print and unreleased). The Link Quartet also diversified into a whole host of new sounds and identities featuring the outrageously talented Paolo “Apollo” Negri disintegrating the plastic and ivory on nearly every kind of keyboard he could get his hands on: Fred Leslie’s missing Link (deep funk); Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra (library/ nu-jazz); The Futuro Seven (space-fi); Wicked Minds/Electric Swan (prog rock); and the “A Bigger Tomorrow” (soul groove) solo album to name a few.
“This is Paolo…what a talent; if he’d been from the UK he’d have given James Taylor a very hard run for the UK fantasy-funk Hammond player/keyboardist.” (Craig Charles live on air – Funk and Soul Show, BBC, March 2009)
But there simply was no denying the compelling need to return to the raw Hammond blast of The Link Quartet groove where go-go girls, European performance cars, and espresso bars reign supreme. A mere week after Paolo’s March 2009 showcase at the SXSW Music Festival (Austin, TX), The Link Quartet were back in business with a session that resulted in two monster grooves built from pure energy and the basic instinct of that lustful DNA that few possess.
The pressure was on to deliver a master quickly for the looming summer tour, but the result has not a single ounce of seeming rushed, and confirms, underscores, and shouts to heaven in triplicate that the time for The Link Quartet’s return to rule the Hammond beat kingdom is clearly here and now.
“Fast Girls & Sexy Cars” and “Drummore” is their stronger-than-ever raw power in evidence: the breakneck power-pop pace of one and the laid-back-beat of the other. The soaring Hammond, sultry guitar, driving drums, and deeeeep bass have put The Link Quartet firmly in their own future – and that’s a place we all desire to be living.
Paolo “Apollo” Negri (Hammond) and Renzo Bassi (bass) are joined by new mates Marco “Majo” Murtas (guitar) and Alberto “Pato” Maffi (drums) and will be in the studio this autumn for the 6th album on Hammondbeat Records. Founding drummer Tony Face will continue as manager and part-time percussionist for the band.
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