DJ Alex Corton – Vinyl Reviews

Good Looking Records

Furney / Utah Jazz – Pipez / Leap Of Faith

2008

Welcome to our umpteenth release of GLR releases and yet another week of the black & white series. I hope everyone had a superb weekend and plenty of tunes are still ringing in your ears. The music always finds its way in making life feel better. 

   The label incorrectly states Side A as Furney’s ‘Pipez’ and is etched as Side A too. However, it’s Utah Jazz that occupies the side. Thank goodness there is a cracking slice of music on this plate. ‘Leap Of Faith’ whispers the choral harks through the sea mists. The jam and funk in here is electric. Life bulges out with veins popping, blood hurtling and a heartbeat going like the clappers. Luke Wilson had originally been a student of the legendary Alex Reece behind the studio doors, and it’s clear to hear his love of jazz funk in this tune. It’s clean, crisp and lends its aura of quality into our world. Luke had polished up his work a great deal by the time he’d released this one, having spent about 8 years producing before ‘Leap Of Faith’. A hugely talented producer and one that was to go on with many more, including another GLR down the line..which was only out as a TP that I don’t have. 

    For today’s release we also have the return of James Fearnside onto the label. Now, I have to get this out my system and it’s not really how I wanted to start the week. The track on Side AA here, when I first heard it, made me extremely uncomfortable. I also know that the original release, which I bought on release, on Smooth Recordings by Hedgehog Affair (Ron Wells and Spencer T) is PT. 5 of their Affair, called ‘The Pipe’ from 1994. The Hedgehog Affair releases gave us some major influences on the music in the years to follow, starting from 1991 (with Drakey at Purple Heart) and then tracks such as ‘Oh My God..’, Don’t Just Stand There’ and ‘Heaven Sent’ on Basement Records, from 1992. Here, they championed some of the greatest electronic music, paving the way to the music of today, that we’ve had the privilege of hearing. 

    The needle dropped on ‘Pipez’ and I honestly thought “There’s a major mispress here…what the fuck am I hearing? I already have this tune from over ten years ago?” 

  Now, I am very aware that Ron Wells never gave anyone permission to lift this amount of work, that both Spencer and he created. Not only did it take the piss, but it also made me wonder what the label had come too. I knew that behind the scenes, it hadn’t been smooth sailing, but the tunes had at least maintained a level of dignity. 

  For all the negativity though, it does sound well produced. Way too fast though. This track would have been held in higher esteem though if; A) there’d been a good old permission slip passed to the originators of the track, and B) The tune had been stated (if allowed) that it was a remix of another artists tune, or at least credited with the people who made it. Having “written and produced by Furney” on the label is crazy to me. It doesn’t sit right at all. 

   If you want my action plan, I just play the Utah Jazz track and will never play ‘Pipez’ out of principle, except to hear it just now which made my stomach turn. Side A is a really solid tune and it’s well worth bagging this plate for ‘Leap Of Faith’. Side AA can leap off a cliff. 

   Let’s start the week with more positivity tomorrow..Big up Utah Jazz though. Big respects.