Yes, nearly five minutes has gone by without a new 45 from the Original Gravity label dropping but you won’t catch them asleep. And so, before that metaphorical five minutes has fully elapsed, here they are again with two slices of Latin funk heat. Appropriately enough, the first of these is Abram & Nestor’s Four Minutes Of Funk which to nobody’s surprise turns out to be an
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ABRAM & NESTOR: Four Minutes Of Funk/ NESTOR ALVAREZ: EL Trombonista (Vinyl 7″)
X-RAY TED: Talkin’/ So Much
Rating: 
Anything X-Ray Ted drops these days seems to be heat and his latest digital release is no exception. None of that ‘one track and a couple of remixes’ business either – this is two discrete tracks of what might best be described as ‘boom-bap soul.’ First up is Talkin’ on which a reliable kick-snare-kick-kick-snare pattern underpins an old soul vox n horns loop which
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DUB PISTOLS: Frontline LP
Rating: Dub Pistols must be at least as surprised as anyone else that they’ve just dropped their ninth studio LP, Frontline. After all, they’re a quarter of a century into a career during which they might have imploded at various points – not least of the reasons for which being the once legendary pharmaceutical consumption of frontman Barry Ashworth. Still, here they at
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JOHNNYPLUSE: Supersong
As his now strangely-vanished 2023 promo mix revealed, the disillusioned exit of the man they call Johnnypluse from the music business was but temporary and the Bulabeats label has been relaunched. By way of a first official release, here’s this – Supersong – a 110 bpm slice of instrumental breaks replete with synth fx and a dancehall shout-out motif. Exactly the sort of
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RENEGADES OF JAZZ (feat. MANI DRAPER): Look Around
Something else to have got overlooked in the Great Monkeyboxing Php Update Disaster was this – Look Around – the most recent single from Renegades Of Jazz featuring Mani Draper. Over a suitably driving slice of original uptempo funk, the Oakland MC encourages punters to take a moment and consider the daily overload most of us are exposed to. Puts one in mind of Ferris Bueller in
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UNITED 8/ TONY ALVON & THE BELAIRS: Getting Uptown To Get Down/ Sexy Coffeepot (Vinyl 7″)
Rating: This week’s award for sterling services to the funk must surely go to Matasuna Records who release another massive vinyl 7″ double-header featuring a pair of classics from the Atlantic Records vaults. The first is United 8’s heavy grooving horns-n-jangly guitar instrumental Getting Uptown To Get Down and the flip is the even better, drum-break heavy instro Sexy Coffee
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DR RUBBERFUNK: Drums Of Joy Vol. 2 – Break Of A Lifetime
Right DJ/producers, who doesn’t like a good drum sampler? And damn if it isn’t Dr Rubberfunk with Drums Of Joy Vol. 2 – the follow-up to 2021’s Drums Of Joy Vol. 1. Once again, them breaks are lifted from almost a decade’s-worth of recording sessions between ’01 and ’20 and actually, it’s not just breaks either. Nope, you’re also getting fills, phrases and bonus drum
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PIMPERNEL JONES: RPM 23
Is it me or has the RPM Challenge changed the entry criterion this year? Where once it was, “Write and record ten songs or 35 minutes of music in February,” this year it seemed to be the rather simpler, “Make a record in February; any length, any style.” Producer Pimpernel Jones of Herma Puma is a man who’s always been up for the challenge of knocking out albums of a
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SMOOVE: Multitrack Reworks Vol. 5 (Vinyl 12″)
So successful are Smoove’s multi-track reworks, he should probably be in charge of the UK rail network because it’s time for Multitrack Reworks Vol. 5 already! And this time the man they call ‘Berry Geordie’ (or at least the man the monkey calls ‘Berry Geordie’) trips to the disco with Everyman, doubly exposing his A-side source material via the medium of the remix. It’s a
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(LAST EVER) LONDON INTERNATIONAL SKA FESTIVAL: 35th Anniversary 6-9 April (2023)
Good times ahead with the news that a huge event in the reggae-related music calendar – the 35th Anniversary of the London International Ska Festival – runs this Easter from 6-9 April. Yay! But also very sad times too though since this, unbelievably, will be the last ever instalment of said festival. Boo! As ever, the event takes place across multiple venues in the capital, boasts an
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