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“It should be ‘Nicoca Nicola’, not 'Nicola Nicola' or 'Nicoco Nicola!” explains Keith Deal, setting the record straight on his band’s original label misprint. “It’s a play on words, Coca Cola with Ni in front of both. I had a phase of naming songs after drinks... Lemonade, Alka Salsa and Orango Tango!”
A record that remained unknown to most collectors but has been an understated classic amongst discerning record heads like Sean P since the eighties, Unlimited Source’s Down In the Cellar EP is a UK-born jazz-funk fusion masterpiece.
Recorded at Wopalong Studios, Luton in 1982 and released by the band themselves, the record was obscured by a limited press, available only at their live shows and a few key record shops like City Sounds in Holborn. Glowing reviews from Invicta’s and LWR’s Debbie Goper in a 1981 edition of Groove Weekly magazine noted “Their original material is very skilful with quite a unique sound... Six strong with ages from 18 up to 31, they make a great team. Amidst the general lunacy I managed to establish they have been together for about a year with most of them being old friends”
A band of musicians hailing from Hemel Hempstead, Harpenden, St Albans, Watford, and Luton, they had steady gigs in north London and across the surrounding commuter belt. Most of their original songs were written by guitarist Keith Deal and keyboard-player Richard Vahrman. Asides their original compositions, gigs were filled with cover-songs of popular jazz-funk titles including their take on George Benson’s uptempo spin of ’Love Ballad’.
Taken from a 1981 studio recording, their own previously unreleased version of the Skip Scarborough penned classic features here for the first time alongside the stand-out b-side dancer ‘Nicoca Nicola’ and the breakbeat-loaded title cut. |
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