Review: Five solid re-edits here from modestly-monikered Denver, Colorado native Funk Hunk. First in line for the razorblade and Scotch tape treatment is Nile Rodgers' 'Yum-Yum' from 1983, followed by Melba Moore's 'Pick Me Up I'll Dance' from 1978, which gets a fairly radical instrumental makeover. The Hunkster then jumps forward in time to Hercules & Love Affair's 'Blind' from 2008, before blasting us in the face with some full-on 80s nostalgia in the form of Murray Head's 'One Night In Bangkok' and then revisiting Total's chipmunk vox from Ma$e's 1997 hip-hop jam 'What You Want'.
Review: If it's more trad-style, 70s/80s-sounding funk, disco and boogie grooves you're after, then you could do a lot worse, this week, than check for this four-track sampler from And Friends, the Bucharest-based "funk, disco and jackin' house" label headed up by Ezirk. The label boss is joined by Hotmood for the lively lil' roller that is 'Tremendo Boogaloo', before it's over to Ken@Work, who brings us the boogie-tastic 'Sit Back And Unwind'. Lup Ino's 'Secrets Of Your Mind' then brings the authentic crushed velvet suit vibes, before Funk Hunk's dense, percussive 'Freak With Me' plays us out.
Review: Rare Wiri's 'Retro Future Disco' series, launched in 2016, reaches its third installment - and with 10 tracks on offer, many of them coming from scene big-hitters like Alkalino, Ilya Santana, C Da Afro, Andy Buchan and of course label boss Rayko, nu-disco lovers will be salivating already! Generally speaking it's synth-tastic grooves inspired by Italo and cosmic disco that lead the charge here - though, given the talent roster, you'd expect a certain degree of stylistic variety, and you'll find such in Buchan's rawer, more funk-leaning 'Family Kings' and the soulful vibes of The Beatbroker's 'Belong 2 Me'.
Review: Rob Halgren is resident DJ at Denver nightclub Neon Baby, and as Funk Hunk specialises in repurposing vintage funk, disco and boogie grooves for contemporary dancefloors. With 22 tracks on offer, there's no space here to identify the source material for every one - it'd also be a fool's errand, because he's dug admirably deep and most would have us beat anyway! But what you end up with is a magazine full of fresh ammo for your funk machine gun, with the emphasis on fat-ass basslines and handclaps while the vocals range from sweet female harmonies to blues-y male growls. Worth investigating for sure.
Review: A second 'Solid Gold Edits' collection here from Funk Hunk, and the Denver, Colorado native has done a great job of avoiding any obvious sources: 'She's Got To Be' bites Jerry Knight's 1982 jazz-funk/boogie gem 'She's Got To Be (A Dancer)' but that's about as much as we can tell you! Across the album's eight tracks, boogie and white-socked 80s soul have clearly provided the most obvious inspiration, but there's room, too, for excursions into rawer funk territory on cuts like 'Plastic Saddle' and 'Jungle Music'. 'I Choose You', with its phat 80s bassline and Janet Jackson-like vocal, is particularly worthy of your attention.
It's Good For The Soul (Funk Hunk re-edit) - (3:18) 126 BPM
African Love Song (Funk Hunk re-edit) - (4:43) 126 BPM
Get On The Funk Train (Funk Hunk re-edit) - (3:31) 127 BPM
Review: There's no shortage of disco re-edit collections on the market right now, so props to Funk Hunk for doing things a little differently! Where most re-editors will simply loop up a track's most familiar sections and whack a 4/4 kick underneath, Funk Hunk takes almost the opposite approach, often all but abandoning the original vocal and teasing out the instrumental sections instead. What you end up with are nine cuts that, in many cases, are naggingly familiar before you've quite realised why, with sources including Phyllis Hyman, Frankie Smith, Love & Kisses, Gepy & Gepy, Vicky D and, coming right up to date, Daft Punk. A welcome break from the re-edit norm.
Review: Denver-based Funk Hunk has never been the most prolific of re-editors, though his sporadic releases tend to be decent. There's plenty to set the pulse racing on "Hunk's Got The Answer", his first outing for Danny Worrall's Masterworks Music label. Check first the gnarled disco-rock camp of "Get Up", before admiring the elastic slap-bass motifs at the heart of loopy disco-house workout "Gotcha". "Hunk's Got The Answer" is a languid, tastefully tweaked rearrangement of an obscure, jazz guitar-laden deep disco treat, while "Take A Little More" is a cut-up, house style edit of a bona fide disco anthem. As if that lot wasn't enough to get your pulse racing, "Wot" sees our hunky hero successfully rework a Tom Tom Club style slice of low-slung NYC headiness.
Review: An 11-track compilation of modern day funk and disco here from Norway's Walking Disco stable. While Rayko and C Da Afro are both represented, the emphasis generally is on lesser-known names, but there's still plenty of quality on offer. Fingerman conjures the classier, jazzier end of 80s boogie nicely on 'Mind Fonk', while equally convincing are the mid-70s velvet-suited disco vibes of Disco Funk Spinner's 'Fascinating Strike'. Funk Hunk apes classic Moroder on 'After Dark', while label owner Saskin S bookends the collection with two slow-moving funk jams, 'Yes, You Know I'm Right' and 'My Pnoop'. Classy stuff.
Review: For their latest foray into party-starting re-edit territory, Handshakes has turned to label stalwart fiend Funk Hunk (he's so dreamy) and Ammo Recordings regular Felipe Avalar. The hunky one steps up first, first doffing a cap to stab-heavy late '90s disco-house and the sparkling "Should Have Known Better", before surging even further towards peak-time territory via the sharp edits, bumping disco loops and Chic style guitar passages of "Wear It Out". As for Felipe Avelar, he serves up the beefed-up, arpeggio-heavy disco-funk of "Lovely" (seemingly a rework of a particularly cool and fresh, early '80s anthem), before joining forces with Dafunkeetomato to turn a Salsoul synth-disco classic into a bumping chunk of cheery house goodness.
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