Author: DJDiscoCatV2
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Here is a very special remix from 1977 for the Memorial Day weekend crowd. I think it is as great a song and evocative of summer as Ramsey Lewis' collaboration with Earth, Wind & Fire single "Sun Goddess". The obscure group released only two singles, which found their place in the early 1990's via samples used by De La Soul, Ghostface Killah and Cypress Hill. Manzel was the brainchild of Manzel Bush, who with drummer Steve Garner and guitarist John L Van Dyke, created some really sick back beats ever for their songs "Midnight Theme" and "Space Funk". Formed in 1973 Lexington, Kentucky, the group set themselves up as an instrumental funk combo and set about recording a few sides in 1976. Near the end of the sessions, Manzel received notice he was being deployed to Germany, so producer Shad O'Shea was left to complete work on the tapes and ready them for release. Shad had purchased the Fraternity Records label in 1972 and in 1977, he released Manzel's first single "Space Funk" b/w "Jump Street" which did not make much of an impression. The follow up single "Sugar Dreams" b/w "Midnight Theme" issued in 1979, failed to ignite and Manzel seemed doomed to fade into obscurity. A few years later, hip hop was born with The Sugarhill Gang's "Rappers Delight" in 1979, using a loop from a song (Chic's "Good Times") to make a new song. Since then, DJ's have scoured the record bins looking for undiscovered gold and found it in the opening beats of 1979's "Midnight Theme", which was used as the basis for Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man" from 1992. Numerous other hip hop stalwarts mined the songs now famous beats for their own hits. There was a mad rush for any Manzel recordings but there were only the few Fraternity vinyl singles that were no longer in print and very rare. This broke open the bootleg industry on Manzel's music until producers Kenny Dope and the Undercover Brother got their hands on the master tapes. They then remixed the four songs and issued the "Midnight Theme" CD in 2004, cementing Manzel's influential status. In 1981 Shad O'Shea put together the Saturn Symphony Orchestra and recorded covers of two Manzel songs, "Capricorn Flight" and "Sugar Dreams" and put them on a highly collectible Fraternity single. "Capricorn Flight" is actually an updated version of "Space Funk" and you can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/jHHETXU3bYY