Charles Hull is a long time Sydney musician with a list of credits in the mainstream entertainment industry as long as your arm, having worked with Marcia Hines, Reg Livermore, Jon English, and, wait for it… John Farnham. As well as being the musical director for numerous stage shows such as Fame, Shout, Hair and Footloose.
The Hair reference is noteworthy in this instance because that score was penned by one Galt MacDermot, who’ material has been sampled by Pete Rock, Run DMC, Busta Rhymes, Prince Paul and the Beastie Boys amongst others; culminating in the recent Oh No album on Stones Throw, made entirely from his music. Charles Hull, if Basement Digs have their way, is Australia’ answer to Galt MacDermot.
Basement Digs are unique to my knowledge, in that they’ve seen an opportunity in Jazz and Funk re-issues of Australian material, aimed squarely at crate digging producer types. But context aside, it’s worth a re-issue based on quality alone, the tempos are varied, the horns are loud, there’ plenty of open bass lines, breakdowns, and intricate arrangements. Its got everything that makes funk recorded in this period so eminently samplable, except the drums are quite low in the mix on some tracks, and there’ a pronounced cheesy disco inflection on others. There are three covers, and five Hull penned originals, culminating in the epic, Song of the Sea, with an intro like an Andy Goldsmith score, leading in to a John McLaughlinesque guitar solo, and some killer drumming. This will fit nicely into the boxes of many a discerning DJ, and might just find its way into a sampler or two.
