Short of tribal and African percussion samples? The cupboard bare of balafons and devoid of djembes? Can’t spy any shakers, track down any talking drums or discover any congas you haven’t used already? We’ve all been there. Thank the lord for Basement Freaks‘ George Fotiadis then who, with the assistance of Smokey Bandits‘ percussionist Nick Tourbis, has knocked out (pun
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Monthly Archives: March 2017
BASEMENT FREAKS: Tribal & African Percussion Sample Pack (Black Octopus)(2017)
JPRIME: Boom Boom EP (2017)
It’s always worth sparing some time to listen to JPrime, even when (or perhaps especially when) he’s named his latest drop after the catchphrase of Basil Brush. The four tracks on the Boom Boom EP should certainly have you wiggling about like an excitable glove puppet though (thankfully without the aid of a glove puppeteer’s hand) due to plenty of big farty bass, crisp drums and hooks culled
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CUT LA VIS feat. TIPPA IRIE: Love My Music (2017) + CUT LA VIS feat. MYSDIGGI ‘Hit Me One Time’ Live video
Looks like there’s still time for another single culled from the excellent December ’15 LP One Step Forward from Brighton reggae-hip-hop bandit Cut La Vis, for here one is. This time around it’s the rude uptempo Tippa Irie-featuring skank of Love My Music which also comes in Sekkle Sound old school UK garage and Numa Crew dubstep flavas. No video then? Never mind –
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DR OCTAGON: ‘Octagonecologyst’ deluxe re-issue (2017)
Stumped for what to get your mum for Mother’s Day? Unfurrow your brow – the answer is flowers of course! Blue Flowers to be precise. In fact why stop there? Why not go the whole hog and get her the full Octagonecologyst? Wait – what!? You’re going to get your mother a hip-hop LP named after a torturous bit of word play on the word ‘gynaecologist’?! Doctor what do you think? …I
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TROMBONE SHORTY: Here Come The Girls (2017)
Big Easy native Trombone Shorty drops new LP Parking Lot Symphony (his debut for Blue Note Records) at the end of next month. Featuring ten new original cuts it also contains covers of two classic New Orleans funky bumps – The Meters’ It Ain’t No Use and this – a remarkably faithful cover of Ernie K Doe’s Allen Toussaint-penned hit Here Come The Girls. Oh alright – there’s a fair bit of
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SKINSHAPE feat. AARON PAUL TAYLOR: Inside (2017)
By way of a heads-up that Skinshape‘s new album Life & Love is in the offing (and in fact due on 3 May this year) comes the first single drawn from said LP. Like the material on 2015’s Oracolo, the ethereal Inside continues the psychedelic journey that began on 2014’s self-titled debut and features a soulful vocal turn by Aaron Paul Taylor. It’s less a song than a gloriously warm summer
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SISTER SLEDGE: Lost In Music (DON DAYGLOW edit)(2017) Free download
It’s rare these days for the passing of a soul legend not to be marked by some sort of commemorative edit and the last journey of Sister Sledge‘s Joni Sledge to the big disco in the sky is no exception. And who better to helm an edit than day-glo disco don, Don Dayglow? For this edit of US Billboard number one hit Lost In Music is indeed his work. Cop it in all its six-plus minutes
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BMD: Nickelodeon (2017)
All the B’s in breaks tonight as it turns out that former Tru Funker BMD‘s got a new breaks single in the offing as well as Badboe. In this case it’s Nickelodeon, an instrumental mix of squelchy 70s guitars and wobbling synth bass over relentless drums. Putting a coin in the remix slot are D.End, who ups the wobble, and neo-big beater Rory Hoy who drops Godzilla-sized drums and goes
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BADBOE feat. MC SHURESHOCK: Under The Spell EP (2017)
No need to look further if you’re in need of heavyweight funky breaks with original raps on top this month since Badboe‘s got you covered. It’s hard to imagine that Under The Spell will fail to cast its enchantment across dancefloors, turning as it does on a funky sample heavily buried in crunchy drums and synth fx with Oz rapper MC Shureshock busting bars on the mic
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SMOOVE: Main Sourced 7″ audio premiere (2017) + Video
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Fans of that ol’ boom-bap will no doubt be familiar with a certain classic of the genre – Breaking Atoms – the debut LP from Large Professor’s crew, Main Source. A veritable samplefest, there’s no doubting its influence or the fact that it has stood the test of time. In fact it’s the sort of thing that the likes of Smoove have been aurally mainlining since it came out. That’s got to have an effect on a man, surely? Er – a little
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