More speed-funk arrived in the MB office the other day in the shape of this forty five, The Ghetto – There’s No Way Out, from The Soul Immigrants. I passed it straight over to the staff to review. Predictably, MB taxi driver ‘Jazzy’ Dave was in raptures after some initial confusion when he heard the word ‘immigrants.’ He was surprised that ‘foreigners’ who take jobs that hard-working, salt-of-the-earth British people refuse to do might be gainfully employed in the music industry. That’s what comes of reading shit like the Daily Mail. When he actually calmed down and listened to this though, he was all, “Oh – that’s not deep funk – it’s acid jazz with a bit of an afrobeat feel!” MB tea lady (and bold soul sister) Loretta May Drew simply took off her headphones (she’d been listening to Edwin Starr’s Big Papa apparently) heard two bars, kissed her teeth and shot me a dirty look.
(Out 20 October on Dry Rooti Records)