Happily, there’s not been such a long gap between Mako & Mr Bristow releases this time as they deliver Stank Soul Edits Vol. 5 a mere six months after the sold-out and subsequently re-pressed Stank Soul Edits Vol 4. For the new 45, the pair present you with A-side, Funky Diggin,’ which re-imagines a little known soul-rocker from a certain bunch of stoned soul picnickers as a mightily funky dancefloor-friendly diggers’ anthem. Meanwhile
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MAKO & MR BRISTOW: Stank Soul Edits Vol. 5 (Vinyl 7″)
FLEVANS feat. LAURA VANE: Mr Right
Teaming up once more with soul songstress Laura Vane, it’s Flevans toting the positively Prince-channeling new single Mr Right. Is that ‘head voice’ or ‘female falsetto’ Vane’s employing? Frankly you won’t care as you’ll be sucked into the groove before you can say, ‘fat bass, slap bass, rhythm guitar and sax.’ What you going to pair that with Mr F? A pumping slice of uptempo Latin
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MORLACK: Cheeky Edits EP Vol. 3
Somewhat more than a year after Vol. 2, Morlack returns with Cheeky Edits Vol. 3. Bet you can’t guess what that features. Of course you can! And I bet you can make a fairly good prediction of which decade he plunders for his source material too. Yes it does start with ‘eight’ and end with ‘ies’! There’s no mistaking that synth sound on Rhumba – a fully hopped-up bass version of Johnny Dynell and
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KID ACNE: Have A Word LP
Rating: 
Incredible though it may seem, Have A Word is Kid Acne’s first solo long-player in the twelve years since the release of 2007’s Romance Ain’t Dead. Now, that is a lot of water under the bridge. Back then MB didn’t even have a .com address and that album came on like a tongue-in-cheek Yorkshire pastiche of the Beasties – not least of the reasons for which being Req
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HOWIE B feat. DJ WORDY: Thats Down + video
When Howie B helped kick start the whole trip-hop thing in the 90s, did he still think it would be a ‘thing’ a quarter century later – or that – as with new single, Thats Down, he’d still be making it? I say trip-hop, the presence of Chinese DMC champion, DJ Wordy, and his turntablist skills along with an ambient electro/ techno sound palette pushes the envelope enough you’ll be
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RITA RAY: Disco Stu
Rating: Not for the first time, Estonia, of all places, staggers with a spectacular slice of soulful music – in this case Rita Ray single Disco Stu. Now, I realise that title might make it sound like a song about a bloke who wrangles trolleys in Asda car park Monday to Friday and lives only for the weekends when he becomes the local Tony Manero. But it’s not. What it is is a stupidly
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KARATE BOOGALOO: KB’s Mixtape No. 2
Monkeyboxing is a sucker for funky martial arts references so Karate Boogaloo were always onto a winner when they submitted their KBs Mixtape No.2, the sequel to last year’s …No. 1. This second ‘mixtape’ continues KB’s work of re-interpreting, “songs from the 80s that were sampled into your favourite hits,” (hip-hop hits, that is!) through the prism of the classic library music sound of KPM
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DJ MAARS & TOM SHOWTIME: Roots Party b/w Hungry Busta (Vinyl 7″) + Free Fyah Vol. 8
Rating: All we wanna know is where the party at so it’s lucky reggae hip-hop kings, DJ Maars & Tom Showtime have the answer pressed in gorgeous, palm green, seven inch vinyl on new 45 Roots Party. You like the sound of that, don’t you? Biggie’s Party & Bullshit acapella placed atop a beefed-up slab of rocksteady – why it’ll fuck up the party before it’s even started! And as you’ll
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PAMA INTERNATIONAL: Part Two (The Altruistic Soul Sound Of Pama International)
Rating: The altruism of Pama International seemingly knows no bounds as they unleash another full set of sixties soul-style covers and originals entitled Part Two following swiftly in the wake of last week’s 45 which, as you might expect, contained two cuts off this particular release by way of a lead single. The LP’s name of course is a reference to the fact that this is the
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SHAWN LEE: Wichita / Brown Hair Woman
Wichita and Brown Hair Woman are the new singles from multi-instrumentalist and all-round music legend Shawn Lee, last heard of in these parts working with Guzheng virtuoso Bei Bei. Not that these two cuts are in any way Chinese sounding you understand and far more in the way of being country soul. That’s quite a transition you might think but as Shawn opines on the electronic
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