Buoyed by the success of the Dimitri From Paris remixes of 'Space Talk', Naya Beat has decided to offer up more new reworks of classic cuts from the disco-era catalogue of Indian singer and actress Asha Puthli. Naturally Space Talk gets another tweak - Maurice Fulton delivers a sparse, percussive, dubbed-out take in his inimitable style -but there are plenty of revisions of lesser-celebrated cuts to enjoy. Yuksek turns 'I Am Song (Sing Me)' into a hybrid storming soul/surging Moroder-disco workout; Kraak & Smaak go all deep disco on the dreamy 'Lies'; Turbitto & Ragz add a touch of delay to the Indian disco-goes-Salsoul flex of 'One Night Affair'; 'Right Down Here' is turned into a spaced-out cosmic disco number by Psychemagik; and Jitwam adds a touch of 21st century weight to suspenseful disco gem 'I'm Gonna Dance'.
The title here, which sounds like a reference to belly-dancing, is presumably meant to imply something Middle Eastern-sounding, but to these ears 'My Belly Dream' actually feels more Latin-influenced if anything - though, to be fair, the intricate hand percussion that forms its backbone does come topped with a warbling flute line so you can kinda see where they're coming from! Jazz-funkish guitars and trumpets also have their part to play, the end result being a lilting, percussive swayer whose natural home will be outdoor sets in the sunshine, with the accompanying Beats Mix doing exactly what it says on the tin.
A decade on from the release of 'Blackbird', the third studio album by beloved New Zealand combo Fat Freddy's Drop, the album returns in freshly remixed form. It's a naturally celebratory affair that touches on most of their stylistic influences and more, from reggae/soul/hip-hop fusion (the fine Kings rub of 'Blackbird', Christophe El Torento and Lucky Lance reworking 'Clean The House'), sub-heavy house warmth (Nightmares on Wax's club-ready take on 'Russia'), dub disco (Kiwi deep house star Philippa tweaking 'Bones'), soaring house-not-house (Jazzanova's emotion-rich interpretation of 'Soldier'), digi-dub (Marcus Worgull's version of 'Blackbird'), wobbly jump-up D&B (Freestykes and Dub Pistols re-imagining 'Bones') and bowel-bothering bass music (Syrup D's fantastic mix of 'Silver & Gold').
The Brighton-based duo of Glenn Fallows and Mark Treffel follow up 2021's 'The Globeflower Masters, Vol 1', which they described as a tribute to the great soundtrack and library composers of the 60s and 70s: think Ennio Morricone, Serge Gainsbourg, David Axelrod et al. Unsurprisingly, Volume 2 treads a similar path, though exactly what that path is, is hard to pin down: there are influences here from jazz, sci-fi film scores, lounge, psychedelia, various forms of world music and more besides - sometimes all in the same track! The tempo never really gets beyond walking pace so these cuts seeing any dancefloor action is unlikely, but if melancholy piano pieces, floaty Balearic excursions and moody film noir-esque sketches are your bag, this is a very pleasant way of whiling away an hour on the sofa.
Time to get seriously low-slung and funky now in the company of Fat Generous, a UK funk outfit from the Humberside area whose achievements to date have included a BBC Introducing... session and sharing the bill at Nozstock with the likes of Sister Sledge and Craig Charles. Now they add to that list with their debut single 'Night Time Cool Breeze', which bodes extremely well for their future career, being an early 80s-style funk/jazz-funk jam that grooves sedately along at a glacial pace, and that sports soulful lead vox, Zapp-esque vocoder bursts and some very fine understated six-string work. More, please!
Three hiphop-inspired cuts from Sound Exhibitions regular Ltg Long Travel Groove. The lazy, downtempo 'ADay Life' tops walking double bass with trumpet parps, tinkling pianos, scratches and a cut-up spoken male vocal about doctor someone returning with an off-beat ditty, the more upbeat 'Back To Old' chops up a disco guitar line and snippets of near-falsetto soulful male vox, throws in more scratches and then tops the lot with a spoken "in this house, everybody's moving to the same beat" vocal, while finally 'Mobil Car' gets seriously low-slung and sleazy, and takes the gold for this writer as a result.