The Attracted EP consists of the last five studio recordings by Mustafa Akbar, lead vocalist for Fort Knox Five, Thunderball and Nappy Riddem as well as vocal collaborator with Basement Freaks (among others), until his untimely passing last year. That he left a huge gap behind goes without saying and this release only provides yet further evidence of the extent of the gap, showcasing
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Tag Archives: Fort Knox Recordings
FORT KNOX FIVE: McGuire’s Audio Shop
Inspired by a vintage sign they once picked up while out and about in a seedy back alley of Dupont Circle in Washington DC in the 90s (and which has graced their studio wall ever since), Fort Knox Five’s next single is McGuire’s Audio Shop. Less a full-on dancefloor bomb than an evocative mid-tempo head-nod, this funky instrumental strut is characterised by almost Mexican horn melodies
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FORT KNOX FIVE: The Brazilian Hipster (Vinyl 7″)
Back in 2004 when Fort Knox Five’s fifth release and signature cut The Brazilian Hipster first came out, the vinyl 12″ was still king of DJ formats, digital was a dirty word and the 45 was little more than the province of die-hard spinners of old wax. Fast forward to now and the 12″ is a rarity, digital’s huge (but still a dirty word in some parts) while there’s nothing hipper than a vinyl 7″. What
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OMEGAMAN: Babylon Don’t Interfere
Always worth checking out, Fort Knox Recordings Oz’ signing, Omegaman, has a new EP out – Babylon Don’t Interfere. Do I sense a reggae vibe? I certainly do. Cue the chugging feelgood rootsy anthem of the title track which features Desi Hymon on vocals delivering a righteous message. Also present is tropical heat of Happy Ending Whisper Song
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FORT KNOX FIVE: I Know Kung Fu (DC’s Finest Remint) + free download
There was no turning down legendary DC beatmakers Fort Knox Five yesterday when they asked if MB would like to do a free giveaway of FK5’s I Know Kung Fu. Lost in the vaults for years, the track had been gathering dust among jade statues and ancient scrolls until it was unearthed in the quest for material to include on the FK5-curated Bomb Strikes comp. Funk N Beats Vol. 4
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QDUP feat. AWOKE: Sonic Drop
Sonic Drop – not the latest battlefield weapon in Trump’s arsenal but the latest dancefloor weapon in Qdup’s – and shit is pretty newfangled sounding. Boom-bap this ain’t. Although it does qualify as hip-hop. What we have here my friends is an 808-charged, super-heavy bass payload with stutterfunk percussion and an emcee in the shape of Awoke on the mic? Did I mention her yet? No?
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BACKBEAT UNDERGROUND feat. AARON ABERNATHY: She Don’t Love Me (Like I Do) (2017)
True-school soul releases have been flooding out of both the Daptone and Big Crown labels Stateside this year and now Fort Knox Recordings are getting in on the action by welcoming Backbeat Underground to the fold. The latter’s new single is the Aaron Abernathy-featuring She Don’t Love Me (Like I Do) and is a smouldering slice of a horns-toting groove that will particularly
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THUNDERBALL: Bulletproof: B Sides & Rarities (2017)
Next on Fort Knox Five’s Fort Knox Recordings label is Bulletproof, a sixteen-track retrospective trawl through the back catalogue of Thunderball – an outfit formed in 1997 by three future members of FK5 – Rob Myers, Steve Raskin and Sid Barcelona. It’s a compilation that packs a full clip of dancefloor weaponry too, taking in nine original mixes and seven remixes of – well – like the
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QDUP feat. JEROME JOYCE: Get Up (2017)
Qdup and Jerome Joyce ensure that everyone gets up for the get down with Get Up – Fort Knox Recordings’ second big nod to DC go-go in a month after FK5’s very own Give It A Minute featuring BCap. Here the sound of the Washington dance underground is even stronger with Qdup refracting the trademark staccato drums, roto-toms and pitch-bending synth chords through a
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FORT KNOX FIVE feat. BCAP: Give It A Minute (2017)
Give It A Minute is Fort Knox Five’s first post-Pressurize The Cabin-era single and finds the DC crew working with Boston emcee BCap who it seems they’ve been trying to get on the mic since they remixed Ursula 1000’s Smoke Machine a couple of years ago. Having had a lot more than a sixty seconds to conjure up a suitable sonic backdrop for some BCap bars they’ve ended up
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