Review: High Park Funk - AKA Tesko - hails from Glasgow in Scotland, but his most obvious musical contemporaries would be US artists like Thundercat or perhaps Amp Fiddler, as on this, his third album if we're counting correctly, he fuses funk, jazz-funk, hip-hop and broken beat into a musical concoction that isn't quite any of the above and yet somehow all of them at the same time. Tracks range from the Zapp/Cameo-isms of 'Signals' and 'Let The Funk Permeate' to the wonked-out bruk jazz of 'Subconscious Streams', and it all adds up to a long-player that on the one hand is quite cerebral and muso-esque, but on the other is definitely constructed with the shaking of booties on dancefloors in mind.
Review: London-based newcomers In Dat Groove describe themselves as "a jazz/lounge project" and here they make their debut on DJ Spen's Unquantize label with a track produced in collaboration with Boston-based vocalist Lee Wilson. In its Original form, 'Give My Love' is essentially an R&B cut, though it'd play equally well on many soulful house and broken beat floors. The label boss's refix adds a rock-solid 4/4 kick and pushes the track more decisively into soulful house territory, but for this writer it's L'Amour Disco's rerub that takes the gold, as the mysterious UK producer reworks 'Give My Love' into an 80s boogie groover.
Review: Sonar Kollektiv present the first solo album from German drummer, composer and producer Janek van Laak, previously best known as one-half of the duo Tutu Amuse alongside vocalist and fellow Berlin native Rosa Landers, and as co-founder of the experimental outfit Liquid Brain Orchestra. 'Circle Of Madness' is a largely instrumental affair but does feature a brace of guest vocalists - Australia's Madeleine Rose on 'Here To Slay' and Japan's Shiomi Kawaguchi on 'Daiamondo', while van Laak himself sings on a couple of tracks. Musically, it's wonked-out, off-kilter drums and horns that do most of the heavy lifting, augmented by floaty keys and the occasional electronic parp and squelch. Definitely one for those who like things on the more out-there side.
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