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Baker's Dozen

Secret Weapons: Luke Una's Favourite Music
Julian Marszalek , May 31st, 2023 09:35

As he prepares for the second volume of his É Soul Cultura series, Luke Una takes us through 13 of his favourite tracks, from his secret dancefloor fillers to the beauty of Pharoah Sanders

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Frank Hatchett – ‘Malibu Nites’ from Sensational!

Yeah, this is a weird one. To be honest, if you think of the name ‘Frank Hatchett’, it sounds like he owns a car lot in Romford selling Capris and whizz. Actually, Frank was a gorgeous Black guy in New York. He was a dance instructor and made music for his dancers. He was very famous in that world and was very well revered. He got music made for his dance classes and his albums go for a lot of money; they've got quite a cult status.

If he's made this for a dancer, I don't know what they were doing, but he was probably on heroin because there's not a lot of movement to it. But I love it. It's just got that kind of weird, cosmic, electronic, deep-Afro mix of sounds. It's another one of those tracks where you’re on the sofa – or, as I always say, it’s a falling down the crack of the sofa moment – because it's definitely not a dance floor record. E Soul Cultura is about that and it's certainly not a coffee table ambient sort of album in any way. But there are tracks which I guess you chill out to when you’re laying horizontal. The production on it and the way it was recorded isn't amazing, but you can really hear how beautiful it is.