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Hot on the heels of the summer’s Off The Hook LP, the Daytoner crew are back already with a new single Shout Love – which aims to channel the redemptive power of funky soul to relay a message of positivity and unity in these benighted times. Blimey – that’s a tall order. Still we can’t think negatively, we have to try, after all
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Monthly Archives: October 2018
DAYTONER: Shout Love
JUKE JOINTS: Suit & Tie (SHAN FRENZIE remix)/ Without Da Funk (HOOPTY & A BAKERS DOZEN Tabu edit)(Vinyl 7″)
Rating: It’s been a while since a decent cheeky version of something has made its way monkey-wards and what do you know – here are two at the same time! That’ll be Oz-based Juke Joints crew then whose Shan Frenzie is up first with a belt and braces funk version of JT’s Suit & Tie. I think we all know JT’s original version started out all chopped and screwed and then forty
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KILL EMIL: Matata/ Humanidad (Vinyl 7″)
The Matasuna label has been going hard on an Afro-Latin tip lately, and here they follow up their re-release of super-rare Sangre Joven cut Zamba Zamba (along with a Voodoocuts remix) with this new 45 from Greek producer Kill Emil. The A-side, Matata, might take its name from the Swahili word for problems but our man seems to have no difficulty knocking out a pumping mid-tempo affair
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THE HAWKMEN: Soulful Dress/ I Can Tell (Vinyl 7″) + video & tour dates
Rating: More familiar to MB readers in his former role as Big Boss Man’s bassist and also as one half of Mako & The Hawk, The Hawk has recently been building the rep. of his scorching new live combo, The Hawkmen – an outfit currently being championed by no lesser a personage than Craig Charles. With a long
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MAVI MARX, DJ SQUIGZ: ‘My Resignation’ video
There’s a certain irony in the first release of a new label being called My Resignation but on the evidence at hand, it seems unlikely that Michigan-based rapper Mavi Marx and UK (by way of Thailand) producer DJ Squigz will be collecting their P45 anytime soon. Squigz provides a reliably 90s feel for the beat while Marx growls his way through three plus minutes of him-standing-firm-
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PREZ 96: ‘Kidnap Rap Part 2’ video
“Dad! I want to listen to that 90s hip-hop! That story-telling hip-hop – that old school hip-hop.” Thus opens new one, Kidnap Rap Part 2 from Prez 96 and don’t we all want to listen to that kind of hip-hop? What’s a father to do? Step up of course – and in a manner that Daddy Freddy and Gunshot would recognise only too well. Cue heavyweight boom-bap and that ol’ much missed narrative – in
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MR BIRD feat. BnC (The Disco Vampire): Hit The Top
Not content with remixing the likes of The Herbaliser, Mr Bird has his own hip-hop business out right now. Yep – he’s aiming high in the company of rapper Bruises N Cuts a.k.a BnC a.k.a. the Disco Vampire with new single Hit The Top. This’ll be the second release on the B.I.R.D. label which you’ll be totally unsurprised to hear is Bird’s own label. The track itself turns on a beat which
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HONEST LEE: Pajarito + video
It’s been a while since the monkey’s heard from Growroom Productions label boss Honest Lee, but he’s a man who is still very much in business. Indeed, he’s got a nine-track debut album, Solera, in the offing no less. Pajarito is the first cut from it and offers flute-led, chilled-latin breakbeat vibes. This all makes perfect sense if you know what ‘pajarito’ actually means – or at least made the
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CALIBRO 35 feat. ELIZA ZOOT: Travelers, Explorers (Vinyl 7″) + video
The new single from Calibro 35, Travelers, Explorer, finds the retro library music-inspired Italian outfit travel along and explore the path that is – well – less travelled – at least as far as they’re concerned anyway. Why? Because they employ the positively ethereal tones of Eliza Zoot to grace this previously unreleased vocal version of the album closer on their recent Decade LP. What was once something that negotiated a twisting
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BRONX SLANG: Well Well Well
Rating: Stand by for real hip-hop as the big discovery of Nick Faber’s recent comp. for his new Fabyl label, Bronx Slang (a.k.a the long off-the-radar Jerry Beeks and his homie Ollie Miggs) launch Well Well Well, the first fusillade off their forthcoming self-titled LP. What ensues is three and half minute’s of the duo pondering what would happen if only they possessed the skills of
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