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A major favorite in funk collectors'
circles, sweet soul crooner Darondo was
born William Pulliam in Berkeley, CA. After receiving
his first guitar at the age of eight, he later teamed
with a handful of school friends to form the house band
at the Lucky 13, an area teen club. According to Oliver
Wang's profile in the April/May 2006 issue of Wax Poetics,
Pulliam later trained as an electrician but retained
his musical aspirations, and in 1970 cut his first Darondo single, "How
I Got Over," for the fledging independent label
Ocampo. Suggesting an earthier, street-smart Al Green,
the record was hampered by distribution problems but
nevertheless became a fixture on local radio station
KSOL, earning Darondo the
attention of Ray Dobard's Music City imprint. Despite
recording an entire LP's worth of material, the label
issued just one lone single, the lush "Didn't I." Darondo also
opened for James Brown and enjoyed an extended residency
at the famed San Francisco club Bimbo's, but following
a third single, the obscure Af-Fa World release "Legs," his
music career ground to a halt. He spent the remainder
of the decade as a pimp before abandoning the life in
1981 to host a series of local cable television showcases
including Darondo's Penthouse After Dark, Doze Comedy
Videos, and the children's program Tapper the Rabbit.
After spending the late '80s on the Fiji Islands, Darondo returned
to Berkeley and studied physical therapy. When the acclaimed
2005 compilation Gilles Peterson Digs America vaulted "Didn't
I" to the attention of soul aficionados across the
globe, the race to discover the singer's current whereabouts
was on, and in 2006 the Luv 'N Haight label released
Let My People Go, collecting Darondo's
three classic singles as well as several unreleased cuts
from the same sessions.
--
The first time we heard 29 year old
Nino Moschella we knew he had a magic touch. Gritty,
soulful, and honest, his vocal styling and unique funk
productions were a must-have for Ubiquity. Imagine our
surprise when we learned that this golden voice belonged
to a rough n'tumble Irish-Italian-American character
from around the way.
Fellow Bay Area crooner Bart Davenport
bought Nino Moschella to our attention. He mailed us
a demo of tracks that had been recorded at Moschella's
home studio. Working on only a 4-track tape machine,
hand claps and broom-stick banging took the place of
the usual computer driven drum loops. Innovating with
limited resources his lo-fi studio situation provided
the perfect gritty back-drop to a big and bold vocal
talent. Moschella's demo was a series of well-written
songs with a unique and blend of 1960s soul and funk
mixed with even a little bit of indie-pop and folk.
Moschella carries his DIY demo spirit
through to his debut album, The Fix, to be released late
May 2006. His first official release from this album
is, "The Real Better Believe EP", which the
influential music blog Music For Robots calls "absolutely
fabulous...a record that Steve Wonder should be making
in 2006." It also caused DJ Mag to label the EP "Single
of the month" and state, "Cut from the same
cloth as soul/funk legends Stevie Wonder, Prince, Betty
Davis and Sly Stone, 29 year old, multi-instrumentalist
Nino Moschella is what they call in A&R circles "a
right f*cking find."
Leading off with "Better Off",
Nino plays almost all the instruments (as with most of
his tracks) and makes most of the noises from drums to
beat boxing. It's a minimal production keeping only the
most essential elements in a bass-line driven rock n'soul
style. On "Are You For Real" lo-fi stoner grooves
on top are backdrop for Moschella who starts off subtle
in falsetto but slowly builds to climatic scream. And
on "Believe In Yourself" he adds a little
gospel to the mix with a trippy organ section mid-way
through.
The Fix album continues the EP's fusion
of genres and eras. With one foot firmly planted in the
present Moschella's musical mash-up is also a reminder
that there were days when bands like Jimi Hendrix played
on the same bill as Led Zepplin, The Grateful Dead and
Sly and The Family Stone. On The Fix he has found his
own way of blending rock, soul, and funk and blurring
the lines between electronic and acoustic music.
Born into a musical family Moschella's
father was perhaps his first musical influence. "My
dad sings and plays guitar. He started out in the choir
and singing doo-wop in the Bronx," explains Moschella. "My
mom sings lullabies, I had a great uncle Nino who played
the violin and my grand folks were always singin'. You
know, typical loud Sicilian folks always carrying on." Nino
Moschella now lives with his wife Mia and recently born
daughter in Friant, California, close to Yosemite, in
a round house his father built with friends in the late
1960s. They also built a music studio on the property
which is where most of his album is being recorded. There's
nothing much but trees, creeks, coyotes, the sun, moon
and stars to keep them company.
Moschella's first musical outing was
at the tender age of 5 years old. His father told him
to keep time on the snare drum for his rhythm and blues
band because their drummer failed to show up for practice. "It
was a rim shot on the three. I couldn't reach any of
the peddles, so I kept it simple," jokes Moschella.
But his drumming aspirations grew, and before deciding
he'd write and sing, Moschella was set on being a jazz
drummer. In fact he plays drums, beatboxes and bangs
random items around the studio all over the album in-progress
in addition to playing the majority of the instrumentation,
too. "I play drums, bass, guitar, stuff with strings,
stuff with skin, hand claps, string bass on my sweat
shirt tassels," lists Moschella. "I'm workin'
on my keys. I'm workin' on all that shit...always." |
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