Influences: Payfone

Music

What does East London know about funk? Payfone are here to show us.

Somewhere in Hackney right now there is a basement, a place in which the duo made up of Phil Passera & Chieka Ononye are making obscure grooves. In 2013 the pair first emerged with a luscious take on modern day disco, since then they have gone on to feature most prominently on Golf Channel and this month will mark the release of their fourth EP on Phil South's excuberant label.

There are nods to days gone by, to sounds of a previous era in which disco reigned supreme. The pair are not afraid to challenge the social constructs of modern day pop and this was most prevalent on their release "Quarantine". Now they return.

Here are their influences…

Buy the new EP HERE.

LISTEN

Neil Retnam 1963-2016

If you are a currently living in London then you will certainly know of The Haggerston Pub on Kingsland Road. Well before the Haggerston there was Indo Bar in Whitechapel which is still going strong after over almost 20 years. This little slice of a bar is a gold mine of good times found opposite the East London mosque on the Whitechapel Road. At the time is was open and run by Neil and Richard Hubner.
Come the weekend the place had an incredible atmosphere, like being on a pirate ship. No surprise really as both Neil and Richard looked and acted like Pirates themselves with their exotic South Pacific looks – each with hot looking girlfriends at least half their age.
I was living a 5 minute walk from the venue and DJ’d regular Saturday nights there for two straight years between 2006 and 2008 and these are still some of my most memorable and joyous DJ moments I have experienced so far.
I would do six hour vinyl only sets ( for £60 and free booze ) of rock ‘n’ roll / rockabilly / funk / soul …pure drinking music … till 3 AM and I got into the habit of always ending my set with a signature song …Nina Simone ‘My baby just cares for me ‘ by which point everybody in the place would be up on the tables dancing. Pure Joy.
We were all greatly shocked by Neil’s sudden death last December at the age of 55. Neil was one of the most inspiring and passionate music lovers I have ever met. He was always enthusiastic / always positive. As a DJ himself music was deeply ingrained within him. He was full of charisma and was a major source of encouragement to many musicians and DJ’s in the area a that time. He was genuinely interested in what you were doing and always thinking of ways in which he or the bar could help you on along the way.
When my mother died in 2012 he sent a huge bouquet of flowers to her funeral even though he had never met her. That tells you something about the man. Always caring / always humble. Gone but not forgotten. Always an inspiration.

– Phil Passera

Neil Retnam 1963-2016

If you are a currently living in London then you will certainly know of The Haggerston Pub on Kingsland Road. Well before the Haggerston there was Indo Bar in Whitechapel which is still going strong after over almost 20 years. This little slice of a bar is a gold mine of good times found opposite the East London mosque on the Whitechapel Road. At the time is was open and run by Neil and Richard Hubner.
Come the weekend the place had an incredible atmosphere, like being on a pirate ship. No surprise really as both Neil and Richard looked and acted like Pirates themselves with their exotic South Pacific looks – each with hot looking girlfriends at least half their age.
I was living a 5 minute walk from the venue and DJ’d regular Saturday nights there for two straight years between 2006 and 2008 and these are still some of my most memorable and joyous DJ moments I have experienced so far.
I would do six hour vinyl only sets ( for £60 and free booze ) of rock ‘n’ roll / rockabilly / funk / soul …pure drinking music … till 3 AM and I got into the habit of always ending my set with a signature song …Nina Simone ‘My baby just cares for me ‘ by which point everybody in the place would be up on the tables dancing. Pure Joy.
We were all greatly shocked by Neil’s sudden death last December at the age of 55. Neil was one of the most inspiring and passionate music lovers I have ever met. He was always enthusiastic / always positive. As a DJ himself music was deeply ingrained within him. He was full of charisma and was a major source of encouragement to many musicians and DJ’s in the area a that time. He was genuinely interested in what you were doing and always thinking of ways in which he or the bar could help you on along the way.
When my mother died in 2012 he sent a huge bouquet of flowers to her funeral even though he had never met her. That tells you something about the man. Always caring / always humble. Gone but not forgotten. Always an inspiration.

– Phil Passera
Bernard Fèvre - Dali

I first came across this exceptional and ground breaking album when it was repacked and re-released by Lo Recordings in 2006

Black Devil Disco Club, is an electronic disco music project by Bernard Fevre, a French musician who mainly released synthesizer compositions as library music.
Originally released in 1978, Black Devil’s “Disco Club” is an extremely rare disco masterpiece, an epic journey into a deep dark electronic soundscape. It was written and recorded manually in a recording studio in the suburbs of Paris using synths and occasional tape loops and a drummer: All analogue..no midi sequencing or computers.
It is a beautiful and intriuguing collection of instrumental songs that each hold their own unique identity. Aphex Twin, Luke Vibert and Morgan Geist are committed fans of this record.

– Phil Passera
Hunter S. Thompson Omnibus 1978

I am one of millions devoted to this guy. What a guy! What a brain!

From the sweet and sickly sticky sweat of The Rum Diary to his full on technical assault of the American Presidential Race of 1976…there has never been anyone before or since who writes with such conviction / insight / brutal humour as HST.

The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time, Is a collection of Thompson’s essays from 1956 to the end of the 1970s, following the rise of the author’s own gonzo journalism style as he moved from Air Force and Sports writing to straight-ahead political commentary.

The way he rips Politicians and their corrupt empires apart is like watching a brutal ballet where a matador humiliates a raging bull – right up to the point where a sword is finally sunk between the sycophants stinking shoulder blades.

– Phil Passera
Air (Fred Hopkins, Steve Mccall, Henry Threadgill): B.K.

Not to be confused with the French band. This jazz trio beat the french guys to the name!
I first heard this being played in Rhythm Records in Camden when i was 17, (sadly this shop is now an All Saint clothing chain shop). I liked Jazz at this point in my life but i couldn’t tell you anything about the genre, i just knew what i liked and that was it. When i heard this track, i was actually looking to buy hip hop, but this whirlwind of an album which was playing in the shop, blew me away. It was both free and playful in spirit.

Thankfully there was no handbook to discovering music, as that would have taken all the fun out of the discovery! I bought it there and then, but the eye opener was how the unexpected could open my eyes in different genres. And so the beat digging commenced!

– Cheika Ononye