With a follow-up to debut LP 55 already waiting in the wings for a September release, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band keep up the momentum with a new 45 – Xxplosive b/w Burn. Hmm – those track titles sound familiar don’t they – could they reflect the band’s predilection for nineties/ naughties hip-hop? They could! Side A of the 7″ finds Dre’s
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Tag Archives: vinyl
BACAO RHYTHM & STEEL BAND: Xxplosive/ Burn (Vinyl 7″)
DJAR ONE: Beggin’ b/w Stranger In My Arms (Vinyl 7″)
I’m beggin, beggin’ you-oh-hooh, won’t you make a forty-five edit of some rather big old northern soul tracks? Hmm – alright it doesn’t quite scan doesn’t it? Happily there are no such issues with either side of this sureshot 45 from the man Djar One (which follows up his last 45 edits), both of which groove like a bastard. Well obviously, they would since the source material consists of a brace
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LIVING COLOUR: Plastic People (Vinyl 7″)
And now for a Living Colour 45. Yay – dreads, loud 80s funk rock riffs and dayglow cycling lycra – what could possibly go wrong? No, not that Living Colour. This is all about Tony Kalangis’ band not Vernon Reid’s. Kalangis’ outfit being a seventies funk crew who were not averse to knocking out chugging clavinet n horns-driven business such as Plastic People – now given a welcome 7″ repress
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RAMMELLZEE vs. K ROB: Beat Bop repress (Vinyl 12″)
Back at the dawn of hip-hop, heads thought nothing of dropping ten minute tracks with no clearly-defined verse/ chorus structure and such an animal was the Jean-Michel Basquiat-financed, Rammellzee and K Rob-featuring early psychedelic hip-hop epic, Beat Bop, which first appeared in 1983. Distinctive for its vocals which are periodically drenched in reverb (and for fading out
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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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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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