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Oye como va, readers? Really – good – glad to hear it! And things’ll be going even better when you catch the news that Djar One is putting out a double set of Latin edits on 45. Side A is, of course, a funked-up version of Tito Puente’s evergreen Oye Como Va with additional drum breaks giving it some extra dancefloor weight and the chance to add a top-rock to your
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DJAR ONE: Oye Como Va b/w Dance Dance
NEAL FRANCIS: Changes
Rating: The Colemine goldmine delivers again with the arrival (on its subsidiary label Karma Chief) of Neal Francis’ Changes LP which delivers on all the promise of a trio of recent singles. That’ll be a promise Craig Charles summarised by referring to Francis as the “reincarnation of Allen Toussaint,” then, which isn’t half as hyperbolic as it sounds if you’ve heard any
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JOE YORKE & THE EASTONIAN SINGERS: Tonight (Vinyl 7″)
Soak up classic 70s-style roots reggae vibes at the start of next month with the next 45 release on Happy People Records from Joe Yorke & The Eastonian Singers. Tonight is taken from the album Rhythms From The Kitchen Sink (available to pre-order HERE) on Waggle Dance Records’ featuring music supplied by The Co-Operators and a host of vocal collaborators. The track sees Joe Yorke come over all Junior Murvin with a falsetto
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INNEREYEFULL: Shake That Thing
The thing with spending a significant proportion of three years shaking your thing live at such festivals as Beautiful Days, Port Eliot, the Great Estate and the Newquay Boardmasters is that it doesn’t leave so much time to shake your thing in the studio. Which probably explains why Shake That Thing is the first new single out of the Innereyefull camp in the best part of a year. Still
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DOUBLE BUBBLE: Ridiculous EP
Neither a new brand of inflatable chewing gum nor indeed a line from the ‘Scottish play,’ Double Bubble hail from Nottingham and come bearing party breaks. Title track Ridiculous finds Kurnel MC riding a bleepy, rolling drum beat as he references interplanetary travel in such a manner that may lead some to suspect the employment of a metaphor. One about being on a natural high
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SURPRISE CHEF: Blyth Street Nocturne
You might have thought Melbourne had already given more than enough to the world of contemporary funk and soul given the number of bands of that ilk hailing from there but it seems the city isn’t done just yet. Say hello then to Surprise Chef who enter the fray from the left field with the library music-inspired Blyth Street Nocturne the first taster from the band’s forthcoming debut
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CO CITY feat. PA FLEX: Go/ Glorious (prod. J RAWLS)
There are certain names in the field of hip-hop production that always make people sit up and take notice and one such is J Rawls. And while things have been somewhat quiet in the Rawls camp in recent years, it seems that emcee Co City at least has managed to coax JR into crafting a brace of beats for a new single featuring PA Flex. The results are Go and Glorious, the former a party-
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HANNAH WILLIAMS & THE AFFIRMATIONS: 50 Foot Woman
If you thought Hannah Williams & The Affirmations were on a roll before with Jay-Z sampling a track off the Malcolm Catto-produced last LP Late Nights & Heartbreak, wait till you get a load of new single 50 Foot Woman. Could this fuzzy, uptempo soul-rocker be about the high you get from performing live? You know – the one that makes you feel like you’re Allison Hayes after a
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DUSTY DONUTS 17: I Get Juiced (DOC FLEX & NMX Gangsta Mix)/ How We Do The Show (DOC FLEX & NMX Westside Mix)
Got your fifth anniversary coming up? Why put out one 45 when you can put out two? Say hello to Dusty Donuts 17 which comes out at the start of next month in the company of Dusty Donuts 16. And we all know how Dusty Donuts do by now – reversing the process of stealing samples from old soul to create a new hip-hop track they start with a soul-sampling hip-hop track, dig out the original
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DUSTY DONUTS 16: Just A Touch Of Faith (NMX & MARC HYPE Daisy Mix) / Bonita In My Life (DOC FLEX & NMX Big Booty Mix)
Rating: If it seems like a while since the last Dusty Donut, that’s because DD15 came out all the way back in November ’18. But have some faith – Just A Touch Of Faith, in fact – as the German crew return with not one but two new donuts to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their label at the start of October. The A-side of Dusty Donuts 16 finds NMX and Marc Hype creating
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