The Artists - The System

You may have already noticed that I've been banging on about the System over the last few years on the Soul Mixtape. David Frank was inducted into our "Greatest Producers" list, and the Systems Xperiment was one of my choices for LP's of the 80's.

So it should be no suprise that I would single them out for some Artists exposure.

I went into detail on the Greatest Producers post about how David Frank and Mic Murphy met and formed the band here: Soulnrnb's great producers DAVID FRANK , so ill keep this short and sweet.

There was no other band like the System before they came around; David Frank's keyboard skills and their production work has influenced many an artist since. A mix of Soul, Funk, Punk and rock like thier sound was unheard of at the time.

Ive been reading the UK publication Echoes (Formally "Black Echoes") since the early eighties and there was a reviewer that I respected called Lindsay Wesker who would discuss new releases. A lover of what we traditionally call "Soul Music", I believed he would be ardently against this new sound. But I remember, to my suprise, that he championed it, loving soul musics new "Hard Edged" sound.

And that was so on point. Instrumentally, the music was hard as steel; Crashing snares, hollow bass, rock guitar. Vocally, Mic had that sweetness to his voice, and the melodies are what make the music as soulful as it is.

I read a really sad interview with David Frank recently where he talked about giving up producing Soul Music in favour of Pop artists because of the bad response to his production work on Omar's "This is not a Love Song" LP. Why Sad? Because that LP is a great piece of work, Omar is a legend, and the Soul music community lost a great producer because of its stuffiness. Listen to the title track of that LP and tell me both those artists didnt create a great piece of work.

But lets finish on a positive note; David Franks website (Here: http://davidfrankmusic.com ) has talked about a new System LP nearing completion. I can only hope it reaches the dizzy heights of some of the tunes included in the mix below.

The Soul Mixtape Presents - The Artists - The System

Grizz back Monday, I will see you with more new tunes next week.