Osaka It To 'Em, JB

The Japanese seem to have a bit of a thing about funk orchestras and soul revues. And who can blame them? In the right hands, they can be things of great joy.

This morning I bought my tickets for Osaka Monaurail's gig in London later in the month. Then when I got home I dug out from the pile of goodies I picked up while in Japan a couple of months back the self-titled debut album by the unfeasibly, but accurately, named Your Song Is Good. Get ready to get groovin', folks.

"Yakiniku Madness" - Your Song Is Good

"Good Bye" - Your Song Is Good

The Sound of Samba

Some scintillating soukous for you today, courtesy of Samba Mapangala and his friends in Orchestra Virunga. Both tracks come from their 1991 album "Feet On Fire", for which they were credited simply as Virunga - a name they borrowed from a volcano in DR Congo.

Samba himself was born in the Congo and started his career in Kinshasa, but it wasn't until he relocated to Nairobi in the late 1970s that things really started to take off. Orchestra Virunga formed in 1981, and the blend of Congolese and Kenyan musicians and rhythms gave them a distinctive sound.

Judging by his Facebook page, it seems Samba is still going strong and occasionally still recording and gigging with the current line-up of the Orchestra. Happy news, and happy sounds.

"Sungura" - Virunga

"Unisamehe" - Virunga

Monthly Music

The observant among you will have spotted that it is now October. Here are a couple of bands - one Scottish, one Somali - who want to share with you their thoughts about the month ahead. The title of the second track translates as "What's October? It's Ours". For the first one you're on your own.

"October Song" - The Incredible String Band

"Oktoobar Waatee? Waa Taayadii" - Waaberi Band

I have belatedly realised that we never paid tribute to the month just gone. Let's put that right.

Friday Flavour

To ease you into the weekend, some top pop from Nigeria courtesy of Afrobeat dude Flavour.

Flavour hails from Enugu in south-eastern Nigeria, which appears to be a hot bed of musical talent. Other musicians from the city include the much-vaunted William Onyeabor and the insufficiently vaunted Sonny Okosun. Sonny's "Papa's Land" is a great record. We've featured it before but that is no reason not to do so again, so here it is - twelve minutes of wonder.  

"Shake" - Flavour

"Chinedum" - Flavour

"Papa's Land" - Sonny Okosun

Straight Shooter

A couple of tracks from Waylon and Jessi's boy, Shooter - the first from "Electric Rodeo" (2006), the second from the excellent "The Other Life" (2013). The apple didn't fall far from the tree with this one.

"It Ain't Easy" - Shooter Jennings

"The Outsider" - Shooter Jennings

It's Biscuit Time, Baby!!!

A couple of crackers for you today from The Cookies, one of the huge number of talented girl groups active in the early 1960s who deserved to be much bigger than they were.

First formed in Brooklyn in 1954 by two cousins and their friend, the original line-up split when two of the three went off and formed The Raelettes. The remaining member, Dorothy Jones, went home and enlisted another cousin and the friend's younger sister for the second, more successful, line-up.

They got their break backing Little Eva on her hits, which brought them to the attention of Gerry Goffin and Carole King who started writing for them - including "Chains" and "I'm Into Something Good", subsequently covered by the Beatles and Herman's Hermits.

Their biggest hit was "Don't Say Nothing Bad (About My Baby)", which got to number 7 in the States in 1963. Here it is with the follow up single, which inexplicably didn't chart at all.

"Don't Say Nothing Bad (About My Baby)" - The Cookies

"Will Power" - The Cookies

The Boyd Is Back In Town

Some super smooth 70s soul sounds for you today, courtesy of Bobby Boyd. Both tracks come from his self-titled album, originally released in 1976 but reissued a few years ago by the Athens of the North label.

"Why Are You Cryin'" - Bobby Boyd

"Ain't What You Know" - Bobby Boyd

As the Scots and other sophisticates among you will have worked out, the Athens of the North label hails from Edinburgh. They are by no means the first folks from that fair city to have a bit of a thing about 'B' based alliteration.