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Now I know it’s already been a bit of a week for retro reggae thrills, but this one is massive and its promised vinyl 7″ appearance has taken a while. Indeed it’s just over eight years since monkey first posted about ska supergroup Phoenix City Allstars’ gigantic Studio One-style ska cover of The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, featuring vocals from Jamaican
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PHOENIX CITY ALLSTARS feat. FREDDIE NOTES: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Vinyl 7″)
SOUL’S PATH ENSEMBLE: Another Mother Pt. 1 & 2 (Vinyl 7″)
…and back to something funky. The hands of Lucky ‘Joel Ricci’ Brown are all over laid back, horns-laden 45 Another Mother Pts 1 and 2 from Soul’s Path Ensemble. First up is Part 1, a sparse barnyard strut all about the drums and horns and not so much a song as a musical impersonation of a cocky young rooster. And what do cocky young roosters do? That’s right they stake out their
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YOUNG ISRAELITES: Stay By My Side b/w Keep Holding On (Vinyl 7″) + free download
The second bit of dope retro reggae news from Happy People Records today is that a vinyl 7″ containing Israeli band Young Israelites’ Stay By My Side b/w Keep Holding On is available now. The A-side is the uptempo one lyrically begging for a relationship while the slower flip similarly has vocalist pleading for a bit more attention as the band channel Hopeton Lewis and Stanger Cole’s
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ROGER RIVAS: 10 Plagues (Vinyl 7″) + Free download
Rating: Keyboardist Roger Rivas goes full Jackie Mittoo on his latest 45 10 Plagues on a label long known for being a guardian of the retro reggae sound – Happy People Records. The track effortlessly conjures the ‘sound of ’69’ with its upbeat organ groove and is arguably the best solo effort yet from the man also known for his work as keyboardist and founder member of L.A. ‘dirty
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COOKIN’ ON 3 BURNERS: The World Is Cold/ Ms Fat Booty (Vinyl 7″)
Looking for emceeing over fat stanky funk? Look no further than the latest Cookin’ On 3 Burners single, The World Is Cold, which finds the veteran Melbourne outfit return with their first studio recording after what has turned out to be (due to Covid regs.) their longest ever break from touring and recording. The A-side generates plenty of musical fire to which Mantra and Jane Tyrell add
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VARIOUS: Toxic Funk presents Boots Of Paradise
Say hello to the latest massive compilation from Breakbeat Paradise snappily titled Toxic Funk presents Boots Of Paradise. As you have rightly guessed by now, that means you’re getting some serious bootleg action in the form of no fewer than thirteen tracks from a host of BBP regulars plus a smattering of newer names. Among the latter are Towlie DJ who woozily updates the funky breaks
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WOXOW feat. AWON: Can’t See Myself (Vinyl 7″)
Rating: As he beavers away on his next EP, Italian producer Woxow has found time and been kind enough to knock you out a couple of sureshot hip-hop cuts ‘while-u-wait,’ as it were. That’ll be his Can’t See Myself / Mo’ Gems 45 then. The former provides NY emcee Awon the perfect summery boom-bap beat (on a ‘funky country soul’-influenced tip!) over which he encourages
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JUNIOR DELL & THE D-LITES: Twenty Flight Ska (Vinyl 7″)
New retro Jamaican style heat from Original Gravity on Twenty Flight Ska one as Eddie Cochrane’s 1956 rockabilly classic Twenty Flight goes through the makeover treatment. And it emerges none the worse for its transformation as something at the slower end of ska that could have come out of an Orange Street studio or record store five to ten years later in Kingston
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AMERIGO GAZAWAY: Fela Soul – More Than You Know (10th Anniversary remix) Free download
Once again, the monkey is reminded of how much of a rarity it is these days to give a heads up on free DL on MB but here is one such and what a one too as Amerigo Gazaway delivers a tenth anniversary remix of More Than You Know off his classic Fela Soul mashup LP. Ten years! Has it really been that long? It seems so, but the combo of De La and Mr Kuti sounds fresh as a daisy age
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MORLACK: My Spin Is Ur Drama
Morlack reckons his spin is your drama on his new Funk Blasters drop entitled – er – My Spin Is Ur Drama – and he’s not talking about his washing machine or his ability to manipulate political cock-ups into media triumphs either. Nope, it’s another anything goes (as long as it’s broadly 80s-funk-influenced party breakbeat) Morlack EP with the samples blender in full effect. Thus while the beats
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