Son Of Sam – haven’t they come a long way eh? Haven’t they done well? They’ve gone from all those original hip-hop instrumentals that got shelved for a few years, to hooking up with a slew of emcees from the cream of the underground (old and new) who still practise the art of rhyme and then finally dropping album Cinder Hill last year and before you know it, it’s all been appearances
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Tag Archives: 7″
SON OF SAM feat. MASTA ACE & LARGE PROFESSOR: Come A Long Way (Vinyl 7″)
LUCKY BROWN & THE S.G.’s : ‘Bout To Blow/ Saints & Beggars (Vinyl 7″)
New Tramp original 45 alert as Lucky Brown makes one of his occasional appearances on the label (in the company of the S.G.’s) with some low-down funky action. A-side ‘Bout To Blow is a stank-ass, horns-led instrumental soul stew about as raw as they make it which builds slowly from guitar chanks, adds in the bass and drums and finally keys and horns. B-side Saints & Beggars
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THE FAITHFUL BROTHERS: Crossroads Of Love/ One More Time (Vinyl 7″)
It’s not just Daytoner keeping the faith with neo-northern soul cuts this year it seems, for here is an offshoot project of Israeli soul boys Men Of North Country, The Faithful Brothers (a.k.a men of northern soul country – see what I did there?), with a 45 in the classic mould – soul stormer on the one side, soul ballad on the flip. The soul stormer is titled Crossroads Of Love and finds Tel Aviv’s
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EL MICHELS AFFAIR: Unathi b/w Zaharila (vinyl 7″)
Rating: 
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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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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