Italy's Sound Exhibitions bring us an EP that finds DJ Moy joining forces once more with on-off collaborator and fellow label regular Funk Reverse. Openers 'Home Jazz' and 'Living In The Jungle' have a sparse, sketch-like feel reminiscent of library music, before 'Relax 4 You' turns both the tempo and the funk up several notches. Next comes 'Just This Funk', a lively little hip-shaker with chicken scratch geetars and energising horn blasts, before the EP closes back on a slightly mellower note with the sultry, sax-laden jazz-funker 'Get Your Funk' with its female oohs and aahs. Baby-makin' music for sure!
Four mixes to choose from of this latest outing by DJ Marcon & The Palo Santos, a six-piece Afrobeat project from Bulgaria headed up by producer and DJ Nikolay 'Marcon' Markov and guitarist Yanko Agirov. In its original form, 'A Journey South' stands out thanks to some very fine trumpet work, while on the remix front, label boss Timewarp Inc takes us on a more low-slung 'n' funky ride, Aris Kokou tones downs the horns a little and lets the percussion do more of the heavy lifting, while Umbo brings the guitars further to the fore - though it has to be said these are fairly subtle variations.
Four new mixes here of a track from 1976 that'll be familiar to most disco connoisseurs: a firm favourite at David Mancuso's The Loft, it's featured on countless bootlegs over the years (including the 'Loft Classics' 12-inch series in the 90s) as well as Tom Middleton's 'The Trip' compilation. The Extended and 2023 mixes delivered here stick pretty faithfully to the space-y, sensual groove of the original, leaving it up to everyone's favourite moustachioed Parisian to get busy with the echo box and other FX on his Remix before stripping things right back on his Spacer Dub. A must, whichever rub you plump for.
The Allergies have been, without a doubt, one of the most consistent outfits within the funk and breaks crossover space, with this new thirteen-track collection being a fabulous testament to both their consistency and creativity over the past few years. From the rave-ready horn toots of 'Mash Up The Sound' to the old school sampling flavour of 'Sometimes I Wonder', we see The Allergies unleash a full spectrum of what they can offer, alongside a host of collaborative guests including: Andy Cooper, Bootie Brown, Marietta Smith and more. Our highlights for this full project include the vibrant horn displays and steady drum builds of 'Hypnotise', along with the slow rolling bass swings of 'Treat You Right'. Lovely stuff!
As the title makes clear, this action-packed collection draws on the vast archives of Brazilian edit and nu-disco imprint About Disco, with a sprinkling of unheard cuts thrown in. It will be an ongoing series (volume two is due next month), with this opening missive featuring far more hits than misses. The highlight-filled track listing features such delights as 'Cut X-1' by label founder Rafael Cancian, a slightly dubbed-out chunk of hypnotising disco edit action, the deliriously percussive peak-time release of Javi Frias's 'The Big C' (check the rubbery, low-slung bass guitar and flanged electric guitar licks), the celebratory brilliance of the Funk District's grandiose disco-funk tweak, 'Sexy Funk Machine', and a rock-solid Rafael Cancian revision of a much-loved disco anthem ('Try To Change', which breathes new life into a Gino Soccio favourite).
Based in Berlin, Voodoocuts describes his music as "his own vision of modern club grooves, fusing funk, jazzy cuts and tropical rhythms". In this instance, that means serving up five Latin/tropical-infused numbers built for happy times in sunny climes. The title tells us these are reworkings of vintage cuts but we'll have to give the sample-spotting a miss: suffice to say there's some fine funk bass and boogaloo Hammond action on 'La Culebra' and 'Linda Negra' has a mojito-drenched sexy sway, while the frantic 'Que Rico' is the one to reach for when you want to give the dancers a seriously sweaty workout.