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Hey there everyone. How are you doing? In despair at the state of the world? Yeah, me too. Hopefully, though, none of you must spend the summer on a dentist’s chair instead of a sun lounger like I am. An attack of chronic toothache forced me to go see professional help and what they found wasn’t good. Luckily all can be fixed, but I have multiple teeth that need filling, pulling or capped. Yay! Fun times, and as we know, not cheap. Still, I suppose if I were to spend a couple of thousand dollars on anything other than records, then my own health isn’t a bad investment.
It was “Independence Day” this past weekend here in America and, following a couple of days later, my birthday. I wasn’t in much of a mood to celebrate either or do anything, and spent my b’day listening to records and watching old movies. I was also in a funk over the extremely sad news that we heard last week concerning the death of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva. In case you weren’t aware, they were professional footballers and died in a car crash in Spain. Jota played for Liverpool FC and as a supporter I have been affected by this in a much deeper way than when other famous people die. He just helped us win the Premier League title three months ago, played for the Portuguese national team who won the Nations League, and just weeks ago married his sweetheart and mother of their three children. It’s a tragic loss. I know it’s mad that we mourn celebrities and public figures so much when there are literally thousands losing their lives all over the world. That point was also brought home over the weekend here in America, when the news of the deaths in Texas came through due to flash floods. Sadly, the death toll from that event is in the three figures and climbing as I write. Of course, their lives matter just as much as a professional athlete or movie star, but when a human being does something special that touches you in some way, you don’t have to have met them or know them personally to feel sad and a sense of loss when they pass, especially when it’s premature.
Anyway, with that all said, it has put me in an odd head space as far as trying to write about a record or something that I want to recommend to you all. That dilemma was solved, I believe, when I came to work this morning and caught up with the store’s comings and goings over the last couple of days. I saw that a record I had ordered had come in. John Scott and I gave it a listen and enjoyed it, so it’s going to be my pick this week.
Marta Ren & The Groovelvets – Stop Look Listen. Record Kicks. 2016
This is a wonderful retro soul & funk album from the Modernist scene of about a decade ago coming out of Portugal. To honor Diogo, I thought it fitting to select a record from his home country. Although the music here is straight up sixties and seventies American R&B inspired and sung in English, all the players (as far as I can tell) are Portuguese.
Marta Ren has a powerful soul diva voice that is front and center throughout the album. The band back her up superbly with hard, tight and fast playing, perfectly nailing “that” soul sound that countless artists search for. If you own anything on Daptone Records, Colemine, Big Crown and similar labels that specialize in modern but vintage-sounding soul and funk, then this is a record for you.
From what I can tell, this was a project put together by musicians in the Porto scene specifically to showcase Marta Ren’s vocal prowess. All the players, including Marta herself, had been members of other bands and projects in Portugal. A lot of the music they were making wasn’t necessarily retro soul music. Marta’s previous groups, namely Sloppy Joe and Bombazines, had played Ska and Reggae in the former and a more modern Funk sound with the latter. The backing group on Stop Look Listen was dubbed The Groovelvets and were plucked from several of Porto’s local scene groups. Musical director Sergio Marques, who plays bass, conducts the musicians here to fine affect. His background was more in a hip-hop and pop rock sort of thing. The producer is listed as New Max, alias Tiago Novo, and he was in a group called Expensive Soul with Sergio. Anyway, between them they do a great job and have produced a stellar, fun soul record.
There are too many highlights to pick out just one song, but currently I like the second cut on the album called Release Me. They made a video for that one and released several of the songs as 45’s, which were quickly gobbled up by the modern funk 45 crowd. Next favorite song might be So Long, followed by one called Smiling Faces. All good. Final track, I Wanna Go Back, name checks some of Marta and the group’s heroes and inspirations. Under forty-five minutes, eleven songs and never outstaying its welcome. The album itself has been repressed a couple of times since first being released in 2016 due to its popularity. Around the time, Marta and the band were a hot ticket on many of the European stages and in particular the British scene took to her by all accounts. This record, though, was the only album the group and Marta made together. A few more songs popped up as 45 B-sides and secret tracks on the CD edition of the record, but that was it.
I must confess to not being hip to this record when it first came out, although I recalled her name when I noticed one of our distributors had copies in stock. I like that label, Record Kicks, and have some nifty 45s they have put out. Hopefully they’ll have more copies for us to order for you guys.
I’ll leave a link here so you can go check the record out. Play it in between your Sharon Jones albums and something from Lady Wray and you’ll be in the right place if you’re looking for soul.
Thanks for reading and happy listening.
Peace – Dom