Paul Mauriat And His Orchestra – El Condor Pasa

Geeze - so many great tracks on this album . I remember this song "Meloncholy Man" was fresh in my head when i saw Portishead touring for their 2nd album. It totally resonates with the vibe they reconstructed years later. Cinematic lush sex funk. One of those inexpensive albums with expansive qualities to suit many a need in music styling. I tend to buy all of Mauriat's albums and this one is top 3.

This was originally something I learned about from the old Vinyl Vulture website, a UK outfit that wrote extensively about funky, groovy, and/or cool cheesy easy listening records. They worked hard to separate the rare interesting album from the massive amount of useless easy/lounge LPs. This is one of my favorites, as it was usually mentioned for "Etude In The Form Of Rhythm And Blues." This is about as good as easy gets, with a great funky cinematic feel and soulful swing to it, highlighted by piano work, snappy drumming, and some great basslines. But just as good is the last track on the A-side, "Black Harlem," which sounds like an urgent 70's TV crime theme done big band style, with some latin percussion and rapid piano lines... even sounds like a harpsichord leading the mix. Reminds me of some of Henry Mancini's best funky material (what, you don't know?) or some of the orchestration Johnny Pate did for the Shaft In Africa OST. A great example of when easy listening meets big band funk.