At least as big a regular on Katakana Edits as he is on Breakbeat Paradise or even his own label Funk Blasters, Morlack now presides over Vol. 109 of Katakana Edits. A five-tracker, this one opens, in not unaccustomed manner, with the beefed-up eighties boogie of Anticipation providing a whistle wetter to the approach of the EP – if not always to the genre of the source material – as you’ll hear
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KATAKANA EDITS: Vol. 109 (MORLACK)
WHATITDO ARCHIVE GROUP: Italian Love Triangle + Video
The monkey is sadly late to the party on this one but couldn’t pass up the chance to comment on a single called Italian Love Triangle. It is, of course, one of the tracklist centrepieces of Whatitdo Archive Group’s The Black Stone Affair – an LP which provides lost soundtrack thrills to an alleged lost spaghetti western/ noir/ caper/ giallo-flick. This one is the sixties bossa style instro which, on
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MAGIC IN THREES: Diggin’ Dirt
It’s summer, the long-promised vinyl LP compiling all the digital singles (currently seventeen of them!) showcasing the best in current retro soul from Leipzig label Golden Rules’ is surely imminent and here is that seventeenth single – Diggin’ Dirt from Magic In Threes. The band hail from Nashville, Tennessee and the track combines cinematic, psych-soul sensibilities with a live-
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ORIGINAL GRAVITY RECORDS: Reggae Dynamite Vol. 3 EP (Vinyl 7″)
Rating: 
It’s another triumphant slab of explosive ’69-style reggae from the Original Gravity label as they line up four new tracks on 45 from The Regulators, Brentford Rd Soul Rebels, Woodfield Rd Allstars and a second Regulators track – this time a vocal one featuring Melbourne Douglas. You know what? The label should get someone they know to write the PR for that – oh
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DAMU THE FUDGEMUNK (Ft. NITTY SCOTT): Four Better Or Worse Pt. 1
Imagine if a host of quality hip-hop luminaries like The Roots’ Stro Elliot, J-Live, Jazzy Jeff, Bastien Keb, Chris Dave, Corey King and more besides were given the keys to the KPM library music vaults? And imagine if, in tandem with this first project, KPM were also gearing up to release original music with a host of talented musicians, vocalists and producers as well. Well, in
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JSTAR: One Time For Your Mind (JSTAR Under Arrest re-rub) Free download
Jeez – it seems like forever since there was a free download to post about on monkeyboxing but here one suddenly is – and what a one – from JStar no less. Back in the day before DJ Maars and Tom Showtime appeared on the reggae hip-hop mashup scene, there were JStar and Shepdog who practically wrote the guide book on the subject. And now here is JStar returning to that arena with
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BACAO RHYTHM & STEEL BAND: Expansions
Rating: We all heard Expansions, the third LP from steel drum funkers Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band was on the way, right? And not just heard about it either but checked previews of some tracks and got a single-length taster in the form of recent 45 Dirt Off Your Shoulder with I Need Somebody To Love on the flip. A full preview was tightly under wraps though, even when it came to
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OONOPS: Oonops Drops vinyl 7″ label launch
Now then, you run a bi-monthly podcast on Brooklyn Radio in NYC called ‘Oonops Drops’ and you’re going to launch a label to ‘drop’ wax 45 heat, but what to call the label? Tough one eh? I’d go with ‘Oonops Drops‘ – and purely coincidentally you understand – this is precisely what our man DJ Oonops did. The label has just launched, following the success of Oonops’
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PAMA INTERNATIONAL: You Are So Beautiful b/w Stop The War On The Poor (Vinyl 7″
Esrtwhile reggae commandos Pama International stick with the current soul direction for a new vinyl 7″ with two offerings from their 2019 album Stop The War On The Poor. First track up is You Are So Beautiful and yes, it’s not just the same name, it really is the song you’re thinking of. However, if you were expecting miserable emoting a la Billy Preston, Joe Cocker and Christina Aguilera, forget
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SMILE DAVIS: Made You Look (Vinyl 7″)
Smile Davis makes you look in a reggae hip-hop direction again with new Nas cheeky version, Made You Look. Yes, that will be a certain Nas acapella over a lively cut n paste reggae beat or, to put that in perspective, a song you all can very much step with. Admittedly not the first time said Nas ‘pella has been used and it certainly won’t be the last but runnin’ nonetheless. What’s that?
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