Let’s play association. International men of mystery, Itchy Bastards have a new EP which is set to Take You Higher. Sly Stone’s Take You Higher (sampled on opener Make Money) was a song about the uplifting effect of music and nothing at all about Stone’s colossal intake of drugs. Drugs cost money. Money is the topic of another track sampled by Make Money – Double X’s Money Talks. Talking is the subject of Earth Wind & Fire’s Let Me Talk the main ingredient in Lemme Talk and a track steeped in funk. Funk is what gets played in my house. House does not get played in my house and yet I’ve just listened to third track Roundacorner which is equal parts eighties slap bass funk and pumping house beat. Funky house? Let’s not go there. But what does it all mean? It means Itchy Bastards have an encyclopedic knowledge of funk and hip-hop which enables them to avoid overused samples, a finely tuned sense of what works on the dancefloor and an EP where the final track sounds gayer than a maypole. This one’s all about opener Make Money.
(Out now on Funk Blasters)