In this society of continuous information display, one may easily get lost between what I would tend to call the crucial and the accessory, as notoriously demonstrated by the use of superlatives as opposed to appropriate words to express an idea. And while having us keeping on accepting this from a year to another, we pretty much gotta admit our collective responsibility to such a situation.

As a matter of fact, the progressive impoverishment of our (spoken) language has heavily contributed to the loss of the sense of values and the same oughtta be said about most of the music currently around… So what da fuss ?

We have been heavily said over the last months that the vinyl format was almost dead if not due to disappear one day or another, being explained here and there that its poor sales found their explanation in the arrival of the mp3. Quite ironical somehow when noticing the amount of money that people are ready to pay in order to get some choons. And when I’m speaking about choons, I’d rather say music with signification, judging by the works of its creators. True, you might see here and there a contemporary production going from a hand to another for a 150 US $, but this is rather due to its unavailability at the moment like say last year’s only Japan released 'Like A Sunshine‘ by Pushim as remixed by Louie Vega. And although far from criticising the quality of the aforementioned, gotta say that it remains light years away from the selling price of some references which sometimes may go up to 10 times higher !!! And if it has sometimes to do with the hype caused by their inclusion on a compilation of their sampling on what is to become a hit soon after - like what happened to Chicago’s ’Street Player’ as used by Kenny Dope with The Bucketheadz - you may also find names which would sound obscure for a vaste majority of us having equal status if not… much higher like that ‘Bahama Soul Stew’ song from Funky Nassau currently available at some Swedish seller for US $ 1,300 on a… 7inch format !!! So what da fuss ?

Well, it’s not only because of their rarity, although it’s clear that those good ol’ vinyls are to become harder to find from a year to another, but first of all because of their inner sense which made them cross the periods while sounding as fresh as at their release date. Yes folks, you’ve heard it : the SENSE and subsequently the SIGNIFICATION !!!

Rock & roll to me has never been so interesting as when used as a music to signify a resistance and I gotta say that this applies to any form of music, should it be Afro beat with Fela, funk with the Isley Brothers, reggae with Bob Marley or soul with Stevie Wonder to name but a few. And you know why ? Because those people have managed to be the true witnesses of their times, expressing with no compromission what they thought as had to be said in order to make the world better !

Not to surprising on such circumstances to see the latest coming back after a 10 years hiatus opening his brand new album with ‘So What The Fuss’ quite significant of those disturbed times we’re living ! Well found indeed… Respect Sir. MFSB 

STEVIE WONDER ‘So What The Fuss’ / A Time 2 Love LP (Motown)