One man who’s always got numerous irons in the fire is the man the monkey likes to call ‘Berry Geordie’. And so busy is Smoove (for it is he) that, in fact, it’s difficult to stay on top of all those releases – September’s Wack Records release Queensbridge vs Brooklyn hip-hop booty 45 for example which passed with nary a word from the monkey. He was last heard of around these parts
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SMOOVE: Multitrack Reworks Vol. 1 (Vinyl 12″)
KID ACNE: Null & Void LP
Rating: 
Clearly making up for the twelve year gap between 2007’s Romance Ain’t Dead and 2019’s excellent Have A Word, Kid Acne’s follow-up to the latter, Null & Void, is out already. And while many things should be null and void in today’s benighted world, this new long player certainly isn’t one of them, taking everything that worked brilliantly on its predecessor and doing it
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THE ALLERGIES: Going To The Party/ Utility Man (Vinyl 7″) + video
Rating: Who was it, less than two months ago who speculated that The Allergies’ Lyrics Born-featuring, Promised Land LP cut, Going To The Party, might be, “A future 45?”. Oh yes, it was the monkey and as a prediction, it was ‘all the way right’ which isn’t a bad description of the boys’ new 7″, the A-side of which is, of course, peak-time funky hip-hop throwdown, Going To The
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GIZELLE SMITH: Agony Road/ Riot Cars
Mighty Mocambos singer Gizelle Smith drops two new cuts off the spring’s Revealing album with the release of the moody Agony Road and the even moodier Riot Cars – a.k.a. that LP’s opener and closer respectively. The former is powered by a driving funk beat featuring guitars and a lyrical exploration of the seven stages of grief. The latter opens with creepy FX that gradually fade into
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TIMEWARP INC: Dubshine
Hands up who needs a bit more dubshine in their life! What’s ‘Dubshine’ you ask? Well, I supposed you could ask Timewarp Inc. – and if you did, I reckon he’d say something like it’s a highly uplifting, mid-tempo instrumental skank. Which is probably just as well since his next release – due out next week – is, well, a highly uplifting, mid-tempo instrumental skank with a Wonderful
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MR BIRD: Bird Beats Vols. #001 and #002
If you felt that the world hadn’t heard from Mr Bird for some time, you’d be right. But if you were to assume that he hadn’t been busy for the last twenty months or so since the pandemic first kicked off, you’d be wrong. For Bird has most definitely been busy – indeed – about ten EPs’ worth of instrumental material busy apparently, the first two of which, Bird Beats Vols. #1 and #2
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JUNIOR DELL & THE D-LITES: Step On/ Meanwhile On The 15th Floor
Having previously covered both the Stereophonics and Oasis in an early reggae stylee, Original Gravity label supremo Neil Anderson now turns his attentions towards The Happy Mondays if not indeed John Kongos. Enter our man stage-left in his Junior Dell & The D-Lites guise with assistance from a Jamaican singer and an uptempo rocksteady cover of Step On. If that twists your
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ALAN EVANS TRIO: Elephant Head
Alan Evans Trio’s new cinematic funk LP Elephant Head drops on 26 November but ahead of that (thank you, I’m here all week!) the title track has been released as a single. Cue the trio launching into swirling retro-tinged psych-funk drenched in wah-wah (on both guitar and keys) with some snarling car-chase guitar grandstanding that almost breaks out into a rock solo. In other words
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SIR BEANS OBE: Part Of It (feat. KELZ)/ DEF=Defeat Evil Fools (feat. ZAEB DUST, BLAKTRIX & MEDUSA)(Vinyl 7″)
It’s been a while since the monkey’s heard from Sir Beans OBE but new beats from Bristol’s veteran knight of production are always welcome. The first side of this 45 finds fellow Bristolian and former 3PM rapper Kelz holding forth atop one of Beans’ trademark dusty breaks with jazzy trimmings while on the flip side it’s time to get DEF (as in Defeat Evil Fools) via an equally classy
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LUKE BEATS: Black Mamba + video
Say hello to the latest drop from the Little Beat More label – Luke Beats’ Black Mamba, complete with video. The Italian bass player and producer likes to chop out a decent sample using his MPC and SP404 and since his tastes include Shaw Brothers kung-fu flicks and the musical work of Dilla, Madlib and Pete Rock, it’s probably little surprise he’s ended up with the track and video
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