Raw Stylus - Pushing Against the Flow



The original Raw Stylus was 'Class-A Sound System Soul'. Ron Aslan and Jules Brookes released white label vinyl records into the funky London club scene, which bloomed post Soul II Soul in the early 90's.

'Pushing Against The Flow' was a big underground tune and later became the title track of the album. Giles Petersen named it his track of the year and Paul Weller claimed it 'should have been a No.1 record' in The Face. Other early singles were: Bright Lights, Big cities; Pushing Against The Flow; Many Ways (Mo' Wax); Use Me (Acid Jazz).

After original singer Debbie French left, it took a couple of years to find a replacement, but they did, with the wonderful Donna Gardier. At the end of this period, they recorded an album in the US on Geffen Records, who insisted that Steely Dan producer Gary Katz got involved. They didn't mind at all, being big Steely Dan fans. The music became more live orientated and they churned out a great record - which was timeless, but not particularly commercial. It is filled with musical talent like Bernard Purdie, Donald Fagen, Randy Brecker as well as many cool players from the 90's London and New York Acid Jazz scenes. A US Billboard dance music No.1 single, 'Believe In Me' came off this album. They were signed to Geffen in the US who were busy promoting Beck and Wu-Tang Clan and didnt really take much notice of them.

They called it a day after touring up till the end of '98. Donna went on to join Sting's back up band, Jules is MD of a successful music college and marketing company (www.pointblanklondon.com) whilst Ron relocated to Thailand, where he heads up a design company, Cha Cha Supermarket (www.chachasupermarket.com)

1. Pushing Against The Flow
2. Believe In Me
3. 37 Hours (In The U.S.A.)
4. Kings Cross/Daybreak
5. Higher Love
6. Cuban King Breeze
7. Tuesday Afternoon
8. Ridequake
9. Pass Me By
10. Hungry People
11. Change

Raw Stylus's MySpace Page

Get Raw Stylus - Pushing Against the Flow at Amazon
Posted by aj at 8:44 PM
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://rapidshare.com/files/93324631/Raw_Stylus_-_Pushing_Against_the_Flow__1995_.rar

9:05 PM
Anonymous said...

This was my first acid jazz album.

7:03 AM

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What is Acid Jazz?

Acid jazz (also known as club jazz) is a musical genre that combines elements of soul music, funk, disco, particularly looping beats and modal harmony. It developed over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance/pop music.

The compositions of groups such as The Brand New Heavies and Incognito often feature chord structures usually associated with Jazz music. The Heavies in particular were known in their early years for beginning their songs as catchy pop and rapidly steering them into jazz territory before "resolving" the composition and thus not losing any pop listeners but successfully "exposing" them to jazz elements in "baby steps".

The acid jazz "movement" is also seen as a "revival" of jazz-funk or jazz fusion or soul jazz by leading DJs such as Norman Jay or Gilles Peterson or Patrick Forge, also known as "rare groove crate diggers".