Rating: 
“So Marta – what type of music do you and the band play?” “Oh both kinds – funk and soul.” ‘Nuff said as Record Kicks‘ latest find is Portuguese crew Marta Ren & The Groovelvets – an outfit who supplement super-tight arrangements with powerful soul vocals from Ren of whom it must be said: ‘girl got a voice!’ I hadn’t heard anything on the contemporary soul scene to
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MARTA REN & THE GROOVELVETS: 2 Kinds Of Men/ Summer’s Gone (2013) + video
MR BIRD: Know Your Rodents (2013)
No smelling a rat here as one of the UK’s most proficient sampledelic producers, ex-pat Mr Bird, re-releases his second LP from 2006 Know Your Rodents which is sixteen tracks of the sort of thing that were Ninjatune’s bread and butter back in the day. Put another way, this collection provides the sort of sample-rich instrumental breakbeats that have been tarred with all genre brushes from ‘trip-hop’ to ‘cinematic’. Either way (or indeed, any which way
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LAZY HABITS: Even Out (Ewan Hoozami remix) (2013) Free download
Bristol bass don Ewan Hoozami grabs London-based hip-hop/ 8 piece brass outfit Lazy Habits’ funky cautionary tale by the horns (see what I did there) and transmutes it into something a little more 21st century. Subtly mind – different break and some moody synth – oh and a lovely stompy bridge. Plus it’s free for you to download – which is nice. Don’t forget to say thanks. I should point out that this did actually arrive on my virtual doormat on Monday
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‘BIZARRE RIDE II THE PHARCYDE’ Live: Europe tour dates (2013)
It’s got all the potential to be a massive clusterfuck of hasbeens and assorted hangers-on trading on past glories to make some cold cash money hasn’t it? A tour where two members of The Pharcyde (who, along with fellow rappers Imani and Booty Brown and producer J-Swift assured their place in hip-hop history with their glorious jazz-hip-hop psychedelia of their 1992 debut Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde) perform every track of the album live, in
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VOODOOCUTS: Juice Vol. 2 (2013)
Five stars on MB, in case you hadn’t worked it out yet, is for shit that gets the heaviest rotation on the stereo (and usually the decks) at MB Towers. And there’s no doubt that two of the tracks on Voodoocuts latest three track set, Juice Vol. 2, are precisely the type of inspired mash-up party breaks edit thingies that get heavy MB rotation. Take the utter bigness of pumping soul-jazzy
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BLEND MISHKIN feat. MC JAMALSKI: We Are Roots (Remixes) (2013)
Rating: Clearly a case of ‘Oh shit – that was good enough to make a bit of money with – what were we thinking with the free download?’ Blend Mishkin‘s hip-hop riddim-powered reggae number featuring MC Jamalski, We Are Roots, now gets the full four-track remix treatment package. And guess what? It’s not just the original that was good enough to make a bit of money with. The ‘exclusive
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HARVEY K-TEL & SNORKIE: ‘Babylon Bop’ video (dir. DJ Tanner) (2013)
Rating: Ponder for a minute the way the net works. By net-work. Last year Harvey K-Tel and Snorkie produce Babylon Bop (genius reggae edit of The Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop) which gets blogged by the monkey. Then The Allergies produce dope Salt N Pepa mashup Pick Up Lines for which Canadian DJ Tanner made a fresh accompanying video. Both of which get blogged by
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OMAR: The Man (2013) + video
Contemporary soul legend Omar is back with the title track off forthcoming album The Man and, if I hear him right, he’s become a man now that he’s not trying to be the man. Apparently he did,” some things that..[he]…should not have done, just trying to be the man.” Glad we’ve got that cleared up. Musically, the tension between who he was before and who he is now is captured by the juxtaposition
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TOO MANY T’s: The T.P. EP (2013)
Rating: Let’s face it, too much UK hip-hop is all dour posturing and album covers on which grown men pull the facial expressions of a fifteen year old who’s just been bollocked for having his phone out in class. Time to welcome Too Many Ts‘ official studio debut release The TP then, as they firmly plant the flag of old school party hip-hop somewhere at the crossover between Aspects, the
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DJ ROAST BEATZ: Panama Ho’s (2013) Free download
Rating: I’m all for sisters not being held back by gender inequality but have you ever noticed how when DJs play tracks containing iffy lyrics like ‘shorty get on it’ and ‘she’s leaking, she’s soaking wet’ that the ladies, far from storming off the dancefloor in a fit of pique, get more filthy? It’s something that is almost certain to happen with this mashup bomb from DJ Roast Beatz
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