High Fashion Опции

[Alex_bog_13]

High Fashion

High fashion is a band that a broader audience of music listeners don't know much about despite their major hit "Feelin' lucky lately" back in 82. Among Petrus' and Malavasi's achievements they place them self in the middle when it comes to recognition. One reason was that they only released two albums and were more or less always somewhat in the shades of the better known acts of Change and B. B. & Q band that was the number one and two of the Little macho empire, at least from a commercial point of view. Musically though, High fashion did receive some good material from the main writers of Malavasi, Romani and a few Americans and could compete well with the two big ones.

The name of the band associated to the fashion business was not something Petrus was behind though. Instead it was Mic Murphy, the co-runner of Petrus' Little Macho publishing office in New York, that came up with the name High fashion. Mic was very familiar with the NYC music scene and certainly did know what kind of groovy name a brand new band should have. Murphy is of course best known for being the road manager of the funk band Kleeer before he met Petrus and the co-founder of synth funk band The System in 82.

At the start the band contained three members, Eric McClinton, Meli'sa Morgan and Alyson Williams, all vocalists that were picked and employed by Petrus in New York. All of the hand picked band members had an interesting musical background. Eric had earlier during the 70s been a member of Motown band "The Vikings" and worked as a vocalist with "The Mike Theodore orchestra" in 79 and Meli'sa as a vocalist on different "Kleeer" albums and on "A shade of love's" funky album in 82. Alyson, a daughter of the Jazz bandleader and trumpet player Bobby Booker, had done some background work as vocalist on several albums by the awesome band "Unlimited touch" before joining the group. The name clearly showed what Petrus was looking for. He wanted a classy and tasteful music presented in a luxurious package, but did he succeed with his intentions?

High fashion released their first album on Capitol in 82 titled "Feelin' lucky" and presented a smooth and classy style of R&B mixed with a distinct europop and rock flavor. The name of the group really matched well with their very European sound on most tracks. High fashion's debut stood out from the rest of the Petrus/Malavasis productions that year, non of them had that pop and rock sound in the same extent with the exception of the obscure but highly interesting album of Zinc. High fashion's album did indeed include two very typical and classic examples of Little macho productions, the joyful and slick disco influenced "Feelin' lucky lately" and the catchy and funky Kashif penned "Hold on". Both tracks were very similar to each other and with many tracks from Change and B. B. & Q. band's albums as well. As already mentioned, the common procedure was for Petrus to collect all the produced songs among his handful writers and then in the last minute decide which track to be placed on which album, that's why much of the his artist sounded the same, the "Petrus sound". This pattern was repeated over and over again with a splendid result!

"Feelin' lucky lately" immediately became a considerable hit and reached #32 on Billboards R&B chart. The rest of the album, with its soft europop sound mixed with some more groove oriented refrains, was pending from good to decent and didn't reach the same class as the two mentioned. Most noticeable was the mid-tempo track "I want to be your everything".

The uprising star of Kashif made a short guestplay and wrote or co-wrote three tracks and co-produced three others. As always, the excellent composer Romani made an extensive contribution with three co-written tracks and among them the main hit of "Feelin' lucky lately". The "old warrior" Fonzi Thornton, used on earlier Petrus productions as well as singer on several Chic albums, wrote the lyrics of three tracks. The producers were already known from Change, Petrus and Malavisi. Petrus, the more business oriented person didn't actually produce, that was the brilliant Malavasi's and Romani's big thing. A bad habit of Petrus sometimes was to take the credits of musicians, many times promised to be credited as producers of the albums, a behavior that naturally made people less eager to work with him to put it mildly. Both Dennis Coffey, Mike Theodore and Kashif experienced that on the first album of High Fashion on which they were credited as assistant producers.

In 1983 it was time to release their second album, "Make up your mind". Once again Capitol records was the label. The set turned out to be a pure and solid record even though it wasn't very innovative. By now Meli'sa Morgan had left the group for a successful solo career and were replaced by Jazz vocalist Marcella Allen that had appeared on "Lonnie Liston Smith's" Jazz album "Love is the answer" in 80 among others. Petrus and Malavasi produced the record once again. Petrus actually co-wrote one track, a rare thing for sure, as it only happened at very few occasions. Otherwise it was Malavasi's time to show his talent once again as he wrote four tracks in favor of Romani that wrote none. Timmy Allen from Change also wrote two tracks and the sensual female singer Tawatha Agee from Mtume wrote the lyrics of one track. Notable is that Petrus decided to use a very limited amount of musicians including all the band members of B. B. & Q. band when the album was recorded. This could be explained by his grooving financial problems that kept bugging his mind.

The album was a very solid one with virtually no bad tracks at all and with a very high general standard. It also was a significantly harder, more funk inspired record compared to the debut without losing the easy-listning and smooth feeling. The album was maybe a little bit repetitive and did not show any spectacular moves when it comes to the musical part but with such a great vocalist achievements it did present a very good mix of dance music.

The most noticeable tracks were the powerful and speedy "Make up your mind", "Love" and "Pump on the pipe" with a lot of groove in addition to the marvellous midtempo track "A little bit more time" and the worthy ballad "Just a little bit more love. Williams, with her characteristic high pitch strong voice and MacClinton with his rough, hard working and inspiring voice all-together turned out to be an innovative combination that made the album complete. This is one of the better albums in 83, although it wasn't appreciated when it comes to the commercial side, as it didn't sell very well. The listeners who didn't buy it missed a good, solid and funky album including some memorable tracks well worth the money.

According to the former member of Change, Jeff Bova, High fashion started to work on a third album, but the idea was abounded before it turned to reality and High fashion split up. Rumor has it though; that High fashion did release a 12" in 84 or 85 but that has not yet been confirmed. In 86 however, a group called High fashion released a 12" titled "You make me feel so good" on the small label called High fashion records. Nothing proves however that this is the same group especially as none of the songwriters, producers or even the voices on the record can be recognized from earlier productions.

After the end of the group Meli'sa went on doing a quite good solo career with her biggest hit "Fools paradise" released in 85. On her album "Good love" in 87she did a classic duet with Kashif that also produced the album. Meli'sa still works with music today. Alyson Williams also went on doing a solo career producing a great ballad "Just call my name" from her debut LP in 89. She also sung as a background singer on Fat boys second album in 85. At the same year as High fashion released their final album Eric McClinton also participated as background singer on the albums of "Six million times" by B. B. & Q. band and "This is your time" by Change. He was also the lead singer of the two rare studio creations of Ze-brass (83) and Deep (85), but then he seems to have disappeard from the scene. Marcela Allen later did some work as vocalist on an experimental rock album in 83 and on a rap album in 92.

Дискография:
1982 - Feelin' Lucky
1983 - Make Up Your Mind

Все альбомы High Fashion будут выложены в APE.
Поехали...

[Alex_bog_13]

High Fashion - Feelin' Lucky (1982)



Исполнитель: High Fashion
Альбом: Feelin' Lucky
Год: 1982
Тип: Remaser Vinyl LP, Tau Analyzer - 100% CDDA
Лейбл: Capitol Records
Жанр: Electronic / Disco
Формат: потрековый APE / Extra High Compression
Размер: 3 части ~ 95 + 95 + 67 Мб

1. Feelin' lucky lately (5:47)
2. You're the winner (5:03)
3. Hold on (5:27)
4. Next to you (4:19)
5. Have you heard the news (4:49)
6. When the lover strikes (4:26)
7. I want to be your everything (3:33)
8. Brainy children (3:37)

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[Tomas]

А на Рапиду выкласть можно? Ничего не открывается кроме пустого окна.

[Boris]

Цитата: (Tomas @ 6.2.2008, 1:47) А на Рапиду выкласть можно? Ничего не открывается кроме пустого окна.

это и есть рапида просто после нажатия на ссылку подождите пару секунд пока не появится окошко "continiue" жмите на него и у вас будет рапида

[Tomas]

Цитата: (Boris @ 6.2.2008, 23:04) это и есть рапида просто после нажатия на ссылку подождите пару секунд пока не появится окошко "continiue" жмите на него и у вас будет рапида

Вчера действительно не открывалось. Сегодня заработало. Спасибо!

[Gensek]

Вот тут есть хорошие коврики, на этот альбом, а также на многие другие
http://www.cover-paradies.to/

[Alex_bog_13]

High Fashion - Feelin' Lucky Lately / Hold On [Single] (1982)



Исполнитель: High Fashion
Сингл: Feelin' Lucky Lately / Hold On
Год: 1982
Тип: Remaser 12" Vinyl RPM, Tau Analyzer - 100% CDDA
Лейбл: Capitol Records
Жанр: Electronic / Disco
Формат: потрековый APE / Extra High Compression
Размер: 1 часть ~ 76 Мб

1. Feelin' Lucky Lately (4:17)
2. You're The Winner (6:35)

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[Alex_bog_13]

High Fashion - Break Up [Single] (1983)



Исполнитель: High Fashion
Сингл: Break Up
Год: 1983
Тип: Remaser 12" Vinyl RPM, Tau Analyzer - 100% CDDA
Лейбл: Capitol Records
Жанр: Electronic / Disco
Формат: потрековый APE / Extra High Compression
Размер: 1 часть ~ 71 Мб

1. Break Up (4:31)
2. Love (6:18)

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[Alex_bog_13]

High Fashion - Make Up Your Mind (1983)



Исполнитель: High Fashion
Альбом: Make Up Your Mind
Год: 1983
Тип: Remaser Vinyl LP, Tau Analyzer - 100% CDDA
Лейбл: Capitol Records
Жанр: Electronic / Disco
Формат: потрековый APE / Extra High Compression
Размер: 3 части ~ 98 + 98 + 96 Мб

1. Make Up Your Mind (4:59)
2. Break Up (6:13)
3. Show Me (5:32)
4. A Little More Time (5:55)
5. You Satisfy My Needs (5:05)
6. Love (5:12)
7. Pump On The Pipe (5:37)
8. Just A Little More Love (5:10)

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