The Ingredient: Satagans - Lovers to Friends

If you've been to this little blog before, you will have noticed I really dig Black Milk's production-style - I feel it's somewhere in between the adventurous Dilla-swing and (early) Kanye's more calculated but equally enjoyable pitched-up soulsamples. For the Bun B-featuring 'Gold Piece', one of my favourite tracks on last year's 'If There's a Hell Below', Milk lifted most of the instrumentation and vocals from 'Lovers to Friends', a song by Chicago-based psychedelic soulband the Satagans. The Satagans were formed in the late 60s by Benjio Caffee (vocals), Kermit Chandler (vocals and guitar) and Willie Logan (vocals). They recorded a three-song demo with producer Len Bowden, which got picked up by Willie Dixon's Yambo-label. Sadly, Kermit Chandler died before the record was put out. Dixon decided to re-record the tracks with James 'Brother' Isaac on lead-vocals, backed up by The Pharoahs' Charles Handy (flute) and Master Gibson (congas) - both of whom ended up in Earth Wind and Fire. A-side 'Smokin'' got some airplay on Chicago radio, but because the group didn't perform live, they quickly disbanded... A damn shame, if you ask me... Give the amazing 'Lovers to Friends' a listen below, enjoy!