‘Jungle Stomp’
This track was originally released in 1982 by ROIR (Reachout International Records). ROIR was a cassette-only label, but it’s releases were hugely influential and included albums by Television, Bad Brains, Suicide and Nico. ‘Jungle Stomp’ was featured on Prince Charles & The City Beat Band’s album, ‘Stone Killers’ and was licensed for a vinyl release by Virgin the following year.
The latin percussion on ‘Jungle Stomp’ is by Sammy Oliveras and he gives it a freestyle energy but it also reminds me of some of the Sugarhill backing tracks and the early go-go tracks by Trouble Funk. Prince Charles Alexander became famous for using the lyricon, a wind synthesizer which gave his tracks a unique p-funk sound – you can check him playing it at the start of the video below (from a 1984 concert in Düsseldorf). Other releases that have remained popular are ‘In The Streets’ and ‘Beat The Bush’, and he experimented with futuristic electro-funk on tracks like ‘Video Freak (Defend It)’.
Rap music was to quickly emerge as the dominant force in New York music and Prince Charles felt sidelined, so he disbanded the group and focused on audio engineering work. Since then he has worked for the likes of Mary J Blige, Destiny’s Child, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, Salt-N-Pepa, Usher… the list is long.
‘Big Chested Girls’, 1982
Posted by Manny Z
Those City Nights 
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