Review: Beatnik City is one of the chief exponents of the Northern Soul sound and its crate digging culture. Here they present what they dub "BarBeat", which is a good way to describe the non-purist approach of the edits featured - perfect fodder for bars rather than big room clubs. Perfect examples of this approach include "Finti Cents" where In Da Club gets taken back into time to a shimmying Motown backing groove or the 90s-hip-hop-goes-retro-big-beat vibes of "Jurassic Jive".
Review: This latest installment in the 'Katakana Edits' series draws pretty much entirely from global music, which makes trying to identify the source material nigh-on impossible! Still, there's a kind of 60s/70s lounge-y vibe to opener 'Besoka', augmented by wave sounds, while 'Hong Kong' is a more Mexican/Latin-sounding affair that'd be best served in the summer sunshine. The fluttering 'Kikiribu' again has a Latin feel, with a chanted vocal this time, while 'Tropical Sant' maintains a similar MO but has more of a hazy, psychedelic vibe about it. One for the more eclectic DJs that like to mix up different world rhythms.
Review: The 'Jalapeno Funk' series reaches its 12th installment. The title's arguably something of a misnomer, because the 20 tracks here are largely closer to Dap Kings-style neo-soul - with, in true Jalapeno style, a side order of hip-hop - than they are to phat-assed 70s funk. But look at the names involved: with the likes of Smoove & Turrell, The Allergies, Skeewiff, Dr Rubberfunk, Ivo Fitzroy and Aldo Vanucci all onboard, you know fans of the label and/or the style are going to be more than satisfied with this one! Soopasoul's jazz-tinged 'A Wild Mad Beat' is one standout for this reviewer, while Skeewiff's 'Man Of Constant Sorrow' is worth a mention for its distinctive use of a country/bluegrass-style male vocal.
Diplomats Of Solid Sound - "Bailout!" - (3:24) 93 BPM
The Liberators - "Soul Dive" - (4:37) 99 BPM
The Grease Traps - "Amazing Grease" - (2:52) 105 BPM
Tanika Charles - "Frustrated" (instrumental) - (3:21) 96 BPM
Review: A pleasant surprise, this album. Normally, when a collection of 'new old' funk of this ilk lands in the inbox, the talent roster comes replete with all the usual suspects, but of the 12 artists featured here, only Tanika Charles's name has previously registered on this reviewer's radar - which makes the dozen authentically sleazy, cinematic and Blaxploitation-esque funkers contained herein all the more of an achievement! With the quality meter showing 'Max' throughout, picking highlights is a bit superfluous - just sit back and enjoy, ideally while sipping coffee and brandy in a 3am East Village diner as you wait for the sting to go down...
Review: Don't sleep on this much-hyped, disco-flavoured EP from F-Comm veteran Ludovic Llorca, who's been operating as Art Of Tones since 2005 and who's using this EP to launch his brand new PALP label. Llorca himself has said he sees 'Brotherhood' as "an intro track, something more musical," and certainly its mid-paced funk chug and 70s-style chanted vocal are more 'palette cleanser' or 'scene-setter' than 'surefire floor-filler' - when it's time time strut your funky stuff then 'All Night' is the one with its earthy female vocal, chicken scratch guitar and "everybody!" shouts, while Scruscru's remix takes us into wonkier, jazzier territory.
Review: On his first album for over a decade, Ron Trent has chosen to showcase his undoubted skills as a producer and musician, offering up a collaboration-heavy set that pairs his usual warming electronics and hand percussion with band-style instrumentation (bass, drums, guitars, piano and more) and immersive, atmospheric vibe. The album was inspired by electronic/acoustic fusions of the early '80s and designed for home listening, so what you get is an inspired set of luscious downtempo cuts made in cahoots with the likes of Lars Barktkuhn, ambient hero Gigi Masin, legendary violinist Jean-Luc Ponty (on the incredible 'Sphere') and Alex Malheiros and Ivan Conti of Azymuth. As you'd expect given his track record over the last 30 years, it's a wonderfully produced and brilliantly executed album - one of Trent's strongest releases to date.
Review: By now, we should all know what to expect from Heist Recordings' annual Round-Up EPs, namely label regulars and selected guests remixing each other. JKriv and Peter Matson do a terrific job in turning Fouk's 'Money' into a squelchy, TB-303-fired slab of nu-disco/retro-futurist house fusion, before Makez re-imagines Mariana Trench's 'Wake Up' as a jazz-funk flavoured broken beat number and Fouk re-frames a Lore of the Samurai track as a gorgeous slab of house-not-house sunshine. Elsewhere, Mariana Trench gives Felipe Gordon's 'Highly Corrosive Acid' a driving, riff-heavy deep house spin, Felipe Gordon opts for a drowsy and eccentric mid-tempo house sound on his version of JKriv and Peter Matson's 'New Friend', and Lore of the Samurai's rework of Makez's 'City of All' is a hypnotic, tech-tinged treat.
Review: Collections of contemporary disco, funk and boogie grooves seem to be one of the very few consumer items NOT currently experiencing "supply chain issues" in this post-pandemic world of ours - there's no shortage of them around, is there? This Bomb Strikes comp, though, stands out from the herd for its sheer stylistic breadth. The album kicks off at the hip-hop-, funk- and soul-infused end of the spectrum, with cuts from the likes of Ivo Fitzroy and The Allergies, and slowly works its way up, via some more straight-up disco stompers in the mid-section, into uptempo disco-house territory. Possibly the only place you'll find Natasha Kitty Kat rubbing shoulders with The Hot 8 Brass Band, it's a pleasingly varied set that, as such, should find favour with a wide range of buyers.
Review: Way back in 1997 record collector, DJ and music writer, Jasper The Vinyl Junkie, curated BBE Music's second ever release: Stop & Listen Vol. II. With BBE celebrating 25 years in the game the label goes back to its roots by inviting JJ for another West end jazz beat special. With rarities and never before heard gems now cut for digital, Vinyl Junkie Thangs calls up all-time music heroes like Fred Wesley, The Fatback Band and DTrain's Hubert Eaves alongside lesser known artists like Exile One, Ashantis and Funkshone with "Spiritual Interlude II (The Heist)" a particular highlight. Featuring curious other Jasper joints from Basement Freaks, OPOLOPO, Jkriv & Free Magic and Mr Scruff, it ain't always a vinyl thang.
Review: With 50 Cent acapellas back in full effect for the Resense label, Voodoocuts brings a stone cold 2000s hip hop classic to the jazz funk realm perfect for any 'hip hop' request. On the flipside Slick Walk pays homage to Young Holt-Unlimited's "Soulful Strut" in a DJ-friendly, instrumental slice of disco-edit gold.
Review: Anyone checking out this long-player from Belgian producer Zamali is advised to stick with it, because the first two tracks - the moody trip-hop of 'Raclette' and the Balearic-leaning 'Never Again' - don't really prepare you for what's to come. The first hint you get of the album's overall vibe comes in the form of 'Low Key Factor', a midtempo slab of 'new old' funk-soul, after which 'Downtown Lagos' and 'Kings & Queens' pay tribute to the vibrant Afro-funk scene of the mid-late 70s before 'Chicago Soul' and 'Solar Quest' play us out on a more straight-up funk tip, the former having some rockier elements while the latter is pure Blaxpoitation-style squelch. Something for everyone then, eh?
Review: Chalk up two 'Katakaka Edits' outings on the bounce for El Paso, as hot on the heels of the soul-flavoured '115', released just a fortnight ago, he brings us four re-edits that look to vintage Latin music, and particularly 60s boogaloo, for inspiration. Leading the charge for this reviewer is 'Spanish Butterfly', which pairs the lead male vocal with melodic female BVs to die for. Elsewhere, pianos and trumpets take centre stage on 'Nuevo Boogaloo' and sparkling vibes/marimba (?) augment the sunny 'Brother & Sisters', before 'Supimos Callarnos' plays us out in far more laidback, lounge-y, almost melancholic style.
Review: Diego Strausz's first outing on Razor-N-Tape, a vinyl-only offering released in early 2022, was a thrillingly vibrant and hard-to-pigeonhole affair, with the Paris-based Brazilian joining the dots between Batacuda, South American disco, boogie and deep jazz-funk. Here the EP finally lands digitally, albeit in expanded form. We get previously unheard extended versions of the single's two tracks: 'Emancipacao', a kind of extra-squelchy, rhythmically rubbery and deliciously dreamy tribute to Azymuth, and '50 Anos Em 5', a TB-303 acid-sporting slab of Latin jazz-fusion with bonus spacey synths. Perhaps the package's most notable moment though is Ron Trent's inspired remix of the title track, which in typical fashion sees the legendary deep house producer add extra layers of musicality, sun-kissed positivity and plenty of killer house-not-house beats.
Review: DJ/producer duo Troo Luv and Charlie Loud aka Heartbreak Sound have a great knack of re energising hip-hop acapellas and dropping some of the finest mash-up material out there at the moment. This latest release on GAMM is an essential purchase which comes in four pieces - with D'Angelo's "Brown Sugar" given a slow, nu-Philly groove, Jeru Tha Damaja's late-period hit "El Presidente" treated to a thematically-correct Cuban remake, Mos Def's "Ms Fat Booty" redone with a new, DJ Spinna-esque set of beats, and Common's classic "The Light" given a gritty make-over.
Review: The latest in a string of excellent GAMM releases, Swedish edit/remix maestro Jazzy Jens has a ball with The Undisputed Truth's progressive early-70s soul classic "Smiling Faces Sometimes" on "Undisputed". Speeding it up a little and adding just the right amount of extra percussion and delay to certain vocal phrases, he keeps the original's vibe nicely in tact whilst also making it a DJ's delight. Backing "Undisputed" is "Guarapera", a nicely arranged romp through some vintage Latin rumba and modest disco beats.
Review: Freddie Cruger & Anthony Mills Are Wildcookie! And as it crumbles Tru Thoughts have decided, 10 years on, that the original album's instrumentals are worthy of a rerelease. Highlighting Freddie Cruger, aka Red Astaire's production prowess, The Wildcookie Cookie Dough (Instrumentals) brings attention back to acclaimed numbers like "Heroine" to a bluesy bonus track in the hum and thrum of "Stop Fronting On Me". With sharp saw waves adding a new age telecommunicative feel to "On The Road'', find wonkier yet funked up grooves in "Piece Of Mind" alongside '80s-esque vocal notes in the most tranquil "Tuesday Is Friday". With Cruger's basslines coming through full and strong in this alternative release, get your dose of samba rhythms and flow in "Flashy Flashy" and "Serious Drug". Tru Instrumentals for sure.
Review: Tying down Spanish duo Pig & Dan to one particular style has always been tough. Since first appearing on Submission Records in 2003, they've gleefully flitted between tribal, tech-house, progressive house, progressive trance and techno. Here, they pop up with a double album for Bedrock - their third full-length in total - that harks back to the glory days of baked downtempo grooves. Sure, there are dancefloor excursions - see the dub house of "Magic Wake Up Call" and "Positive Vibrations" - but these are few and far between. Instead, they focus on hazy grooves, dub, ambient, sun-backed trip-hop, humid hip-hop, nu-jazz, ambient and deep breaks, with surprisingly impressive results.
Review: Just a year shy of 20 years old, "Asiko (In A Silent Mix)" from Tony Allen's perennial Black Voices album enjoys a timely revision as part of Dekmantel's 10 year anniversary celebrations. This one comes from Motor City Drum Ensemble who maintains the dubby washes and pure spaciousness of Allen's original while refocussing the drums for more of a deeper dancefloor drive. Not quite as extensive as Villalobos's half hour remix but sometimes is a sweet seven minutes is the perfect punch. Jump on this.
Review: The first in a series of compilations by Jura Soundsystem which blends dub, ambient, downtempo, boogie and proto house with a focus on previously unreleased music, out of print titles and some special versions edited specifically for the album. According to label boss Kevin Griffiths, the intention of this project was to delve deeper into the reissue pond and unearth some lesser known tracks and artists. Light one up and swagger to the sunkissed groove of Astral Engineering's "Seashore Dub", submit to the sweet steel drums and cosmo-dub vibes of Ken Dang's "Born In Borneo" (Jura Soundsystem Edit) or get down to the boogie-down vibe of Tabou Combo Superstars' "Ooh La La" (Jura Soundsystem Edit). The end of the album includes some soothing ambient tools.
Review: Though known mostly for jazz- and swing-infused grooves, French producer Minimatic takes a detour into hip-hop pastures here, albeit there are also noticeable bossa/lounge influences in play. 'That Golden Bossa Hop' brings to mind the output of Bristol crew The Allergies, 'Drop It Like It's Hot' reworks the Snoop Dogg classic of the same name in a Latin jazz stylee, 'Cognac Wanksta' is a laidback, blunted affair, 'De La Bossa' recalls vintage Galliano from the early 90s, and bonus cut 'Ladi Dadi Doo' has a rawer, demo-like feel. If you love both golden age hip-hop and jazz, you'll dig this EP for sure.
Review: Ninja Tune have assembled a truly exceptional line-up of producers for this full remix album of Bonobo's Black Sands, with exclusives from Duke Dumont, FaltyDL, Machinedrum, Mark Pritchard, Cosmin TRG and Floating Points all shining very bright indeed. With such a stellar cast, highlights abound: Banks' adds a glacial chill to the Andreya Triana-vocalled "The Keeper", Cosmin TRG works "Kiara" into a bubbly and gut-wrenching Detroit fantasy while Floating Points lends a deep, jazz-step vibe to "Eyesdown". In contrast, and in full on hazy-juke mode (ahead of his forthcoming Planet Mu collaborations with Om Unit), Machinedrum kills it with his own steroid-popping mix of "Eyesdown", while Duke Dumont rounds off the album with the exquisite beatless time stretch of "Black Sands". Highly recommended.
Review: Amazingly, it's 25 years since George 'E.A.S.E' Evelyn and then production partner Kevin 'Boy Wonder' Harper sat down and recorded "Dextrous", their monstrous, bleep-era classic on Warp. A quarter of a century later, Evelyn is still going strong, though the grooves have mellowed a lot in that time. Here, Warp celebrate the producer's epic career with a much-deserved retrospective. All the familiar favourites are present, from the rush-inducing thrill of early dancefloor smashers "I'm For Real" and "Aftermath", to the sinewy downtempo goodness of the decidedly Balearic "Les Nuits", the blazed hip-hop dub of "195 Llbs" and stoner soul of "70s 80s". This version also includes a number of exclusive remixes, with names like JD Twitch, Special Request, LFO, Morgan Geist and Loco Dice putting their own spin on this classic material.
