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El Michels Affair certainly haven’t fallen asleep basking in the glory of last year’s excellent Return To The 37th Chamber and here’s two magnificent reasons why on either side of a fresh new 45 entitled Unathi and Zaharila. Hmm – sounds a bit Bollywood. Damn straight! At least Bollywood funky that is – as they draw on the vocal talents of Piya Malik from label mates
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Tag Archives: 7″
EL MICHELS AFFAIR: Unathi b/w Zaharila (vinyl 7″)
SMOOVE & TURRELL: I Feel Alive/ Mr Hyde (Vinyl 7″)
The monkey told you Smoove & Turrell’s new LP, Mount Pleasant, was on the way and so it is at the end of this month. In the meantime, here is the second single and follow-up to Izo FitzRoy collab. You’re Gone. Entitled I Feel Alive and backed with Mr Hyde – it demonstrates once again that S & T have more than one musical side. The role they’ve carved out as radio-friendly Chic and
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SOUL DYNAMITE 002: Return Of The B-Boy (MR LIF)(Vinyl 7″)
Rating: Soul Dynamite pull no punches with the follow-up to their first release and go straight for the jugular with some vintage Mr Lif fire – a 45 splitting Mr Lif’s seven-and-a-half minute Return Of The B-Boy into parts 1 and 2 – one on each side. That’s not quite as weird as it sounds for on Lif’s critically acclaimed debut full-length from ’02, I, Phantom, the El-P produced Return Of The B-
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JOE FARRELL/ ARTIFACTS: Upon This Rock (MR FANTASTIC edit)/ Whassup Now Muthafucka(Vinyl 7″)
The original release of saxophonist Joe Farrell’s funky jazz-rock epic Upon This Rock from 1974 is around twelve minutes long and takes a good three and a half minutes of ‘fusion’-style farting about before it even gets funky – though when it does get funky, it gets very funky indeed. So much so in fact that Artifacts, Method Man, Common, Redman and Kanye West have all plundered the track for their own beats at
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DAYTONER: Second Stomp b/w I Get By (Vinyl 7″)
Rating: I do hope you caught Daytoner’s sterling neo-northern soul 45 outing, Needed You/ Sicka, earlier in the year and now it’s time for a second neo-northern soul effort entitled, appropriately enough, Second Stomp. Second Stomp? “I don’t think they know about Second Stomp, Pip.” ‘But they know about Stevie’s Uptight don’t they Merry?’ They certainly should do, so
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CALIBRO 35: Psycheground (video + ltd. Vinyl 7″)
Of course it was only a couple of months ago that Italian kings of cinematic funk, Calibro 35, dropped their umpteenth studio LP, Decade which, the monkey noted, “…starts innocuously enough with the afro-tinged lilt of Psycheground…[and]…in Calibro 35-land we’re in the title sequence of whatever film is in their heads…[which]…surely…features a lengthy single-take of a
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DJ’s CHOICE: THE REBEL feat. DARK ANGEL/ DJ VADIM feat. MACKA B (7″ vinyl)
It’s been a while since the monkey’s had any proper bashment business to report but that particular drought is over now with the arrival of this new DJ’s Choice 45. Hitherto, DJ’s Choice has, of course, been the collective term for Rome’s ‘soul shakedown’ party-starter the Rebel DJ and Lisbon’s Dedy Dread. Now, however, it is also the name of the record label started by the Rebel DJ. The first
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SMOOVE & TURRELL feat. IZO FITZROY: You’re Gone (Vinyl 7″)
Musical history is full of blazing, soulful duets – Carla & Otis, Marvin & Tammi, Smoove & Turrell. Wait – no – that’s not right – I meant John Turrell and Izo FitzRoy on new Smoove & Turrell single You’re Gone! Not that Smoove is ever far away from any action involving JT and here he supplies a pumping disco groove over which Turrell and FitzRoy explore the classic soul duet trope of
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GROUP MODULAR: Black Ray b/w Acid Wheels (Vinyl 7″)
If your life has been missing out on menacingly heavy paranoid psych-funk since the last MNP single on Markey Funk’s Delights label then you’re in luck. For Markey Funk (who else?) and Mule Driver are about to sort you right out with their new Group Modular 7″ – Black Ray b/w Acid Wheels. It’s the kind of release that sets the record straight if you think library music is for
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TIMEWARP INC: Funky Bob Timbales b/w Cinemafilm (Vinyl 7″)
The resurgence of the 45 format continues with no sign of a market awash with old 45 reissues, first time-on-45 reissues, new originals and new booties drying out any time soon. On this drop, Timewarp Inc. digs deep into the back catalogue for a 45 reissue of a brace of eleven year old tracks that previously saw light of day in seven inch format a full decade ago. Funky Bob Timbales
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