Review: Last year, Serbian re-edit and rework specialist Tonbe began offering up freshly updated versions of cuts from his catalogue. He begins the new year by offering up more of the same - specifically a quartet of '2024' versions of things he first edited, remixed and reworked in the dim and distant past. He begins by reworking 2016's 'Original Tool', delivering a driving, thickset slab of heady disco-house excellence, before lightly polishing-up the disco-funk horns and deliciously low-slung bass of 2018 classic 'Downtown Drive' (arguably the most-played cut in his catalogue). There's more funky bass - alongside relaxed, flanged guitar licks and twinkling Rhodes solos - on lolloping disco-house number 'Boss of Funl', while 'I Feel Energy' is a deliciously sun-splashed disco roller that's as deep and warming as it is effortlessly funky.
Review: Another EP featuring new rubs of previously released Tonbe cuts, coming on his own Disco Fruit label. 'Disco Frisco' is all walking bassline, looped guitars and space disco stabs, augmented by plinky-plonk synths and some fairly restrained brass. 'Raw Taste' has a very similar MO but with a rawer funk feel, while 'Summer Education' augments the blueprint with wailing geetar. All three are plenty playable but as so often with Tonbe's releases there's one clear standout, and in this case it's 'Move That Ass', which will grab the floor's attention with its spoken "bounce that ass, move that ass, shake that ass" vocal. File under "big, dumb and glorious".
Review: Serbian disco fruit from Tonbe, a producer releasing candy-heeled dance wares for some 15 years now. For Disco Fruit yet again he brings the heat, with the title track kicking off heavy and deep before those righteous chords roll in. Heavier and dubbed out still is "Weekend Fever" with its thick filters and French house sampling twist. Funkier numbers come from "Too Far Away" next to a minimal '70s electro cuts in "Robot Drivel" and '90s R&B via "Groupie Love". Get your west coast sh*t from "Turn It Up" next to the solid states of "Unchained". When life gives you lemons make lemonade.
Review: A single release here for a track that first saw the light of day on Tonbe's 'My Touch' long-player back in July 2021... which explains why this writer has spent the week scratching his head and wondering where he'd heard the vocal before! "Truly sublime" is how I described 'Beside Me' back then and 25 months have done nothing to diminish its appeal: that sultry, jazzy, exotic-sounding vocal still cuts through like a knife while there's a Morel's Grooves-ish quality to the ass-shakin' backbeat. In a just world, this would be THE summer anthem of 2023 but that, of course, is up to you...
Review: Tonbe's latest, the fairly self-explanatory 'Nu Disco Meets Synthwave Vol 1', packs a whopping 20 tracks, but while the Serbian nu-disco don puts out plenty of hefty releases, this one's a little different, serving as a kind of 'best of' compilation, with six of the tracks served up in both vocal and instrumental versions. As such, regular buyers may have much of what's here already, but no matter, because this reviewer has spent the past two years telling anyone who's interested (and quite a few that weren't) that the stab at the 0:31 mark in 'Easy Dancin' is the most perfect three seconds of audio recorded so far this millennium, and now here's a chance to do so all over again... a great collection from a great producer.
Review: The ever-prolific Milos Djordjevic AKA Tonbe AKA Loshmi returns to his own Fruity Flavor with, as is par for the course, a single-track release - the general idea seems to be that Disco Fruit is the home for his EP and album-length releases, while Fruity Flavor seems to be reserved for the trackier stuff. So it is here, certainly, because 'Too Far Away' really ain't nothin' but a groove: more specifically, a no-nonsense chugger with crisp hats and a fat-bottomed bassline underpinning looped organ doodles, jazz-funk guitar squiggles, horn parps and just a hint, in the mid-section, of acid throb. One to keep 'em moving for sure.
Review: Three tracks in a total of five mixes make up this latest offering from Serbian main man Tonbe. First up is 'Tonight', which tops a walking bassline and plinky-plonk 80s synths with a very sweet n' poppy female vocal, though the latter's obviously absent from the accompanying instrumental. 'Ruler & Queen' is a quirky, shuffling affair that's likewise available with or without the plainitive vocal, but for this reviewer's money the standout here is 'Disco Baby', a contemporary boogie-style jam with an indecipherable male vocal and more bounce 'n' wiggle to its bottom end than is frankly decent.
Review: Serbian disco producer extraordinaire Tonbe once more teams up with his Montenegran counterpart Mitiko, as well as with himself in his Loshmi re-editor guise. Loshmi's uptempo rework of Dillinger's 'Cocaine' gets the ball rolling, after which come takes on Chaka Khan's 'I'm Every Woman', The Flirts' 'Passion' and The Salsoul Orchestra's 'Take Some Time Out For Love', plus a brace of unidentified Latin cuts. After that come three cuts from Mitiko, with 'In Your Soul' drawing heavily on Soul Children's 'Stir Up The Boogie' from 1978 and 'Morning Talkbox' bringing the Zapp-isms, before Tonbe plays us out with three tracks of his own, including the rumbustious 'Funkstar' and the Alpha Blondy-biting 'Sabari'.
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