Looks like the fourth is strong (thank you, I’m here all week!) in Dj Yoda’s latest LP, Home Cooking which, if you don’t count his self-released Piano Breaks ’98 cassette job, is his…er…fourth solo studio long-player. Well, I say ‘solo’ but Home Cooking (or ‘Homecooking’ depending on your source) actually features a host of guest
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DJ YODA: Home Cooking
RALPH WEEKS: ‘Let Me Do My Thing’ re-press + VOODOOCUTS Remix (Vinyl 7″)
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Alright, so it’s a bit longer than a month between releases this time but who’s going to complain if it’s this large – only a 45 re-press of Ralph Weeks’ massive Panamanian funk bomb Let Me Do My Thing! One of the monkey’s favourite Latin funk tracks ever, the 1971 original – recorded by Weeks with band Los Dinamicos
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THE ALLERGIES feat. ANDY COOPER: 2Much! b/w Special 45
‘One, two, MUCH!’ Thus begins The Allergies new 45 featuring erstwhile UD emcee and unofficial third allergy Andy Cooper. Cue uptempo double bass line, a million jazzy and funky samples and Mr Cooper on top form machine-gunning syllables into the mic. Don’t forget to listen carefully to the shout-outs though as the earth-sheltered glory of Gloucester Services gets a namecheck in amongst
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TANIKA CHARLES: The Gumption
Rating: When Torontonian singer Tanika Charles blew in the a couple of years ago with debut LP Soul Run, she made big waves on the underground soul scene and catapulted herself onto a global stage. Ask most people and they’d tell you that label Record Kicks had unerringly struck gold once again. Which they obviously had – given the fuss. Sadly the monkey wasn’t feeling
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KELLY FINNIGAN: The Tales People Tell
If there’s one tale people will tell about 2019, it’s that it was an epic year for classic soul albums. Eli Paperboy Reed’s 99 Cent Dreams, Lee Fields’ It Rains Love and Bobby Oroza’s This Love are already out while Tanika Charles’ The Gumption is imminent and here’s another to add to that select list – the debut solo album from Monophonics singer Kelly Finnigan entitled – er
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BOBBY OROZA: This Love (album) + Your Love Is Too Cold video
Vying for the title of king of the new wave of lowrider soul must surely be Bobby Oroza with his debut album This Love. The LP is the culmination of a journey that began three years ago with the original release of the title track – a slice of summery Latin soul haze – on Timmion Records. Last year the single was re-released on New York’s Big Crown label and there was talk of a
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LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS: It Rains Love
The success of the ongoing soul revival that began as the nineties ended and the noughties began gained much traction from the fact that a triumvirate of survivors from the golden era of funk and soul were hugely active within the scene. And while Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley may have sadly now have passed on, the man whose career launched theirs, Lee Fields, continues to
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MAKO & MR BRISTOW: Stank Soul Edits Vol. 4 (Vinyl 7″)
Stop the press! Mako & Mr Bristow finally release Stank Soul Edits Vol. 4! It seems like forever since Vol. 3 but now here they are with their fourth volume of funky 45 edits and three tracks no less, not to mention having jumped ship from Resense to Breakbeat Paradise for what just happens to be BBP’s first ever vinyl 7″! But three tracks on a 45? Well, like the boys say, their raison d’etre is
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KIND & KINKY ZOO: Seven Noisettes b/w Poulpe Fiction (Vinyl 7″)
Swiss outfit Kind & Kinky Zoo return with a new vinyl 7″ packed full of nutty goodness and juicy instrumental antics in the form of Seven Noisettes b/w Poulpe Fiction. If you caught 2017’s long-awaited LP Released! you’ll know that while this lot are on the funky spectrum, they feel entirely unconstrained by genre boundaries and at any given moment are liable to veer off at jazz or
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THE AGGROLITES: Pound For Pound
Rating: Let me see now, vintage sixties organ sounds, boss reggae vibes and a soulful growl? Pound for pound, there can surely only be one outfit that produces such glorious ‘dirty reggae’ sound and it is of course the one and only Aggrolites with new single – er – Pound For Pound. Turns out this is the harbinger of their sixth studio album, Reggae Now, due towards the end of May
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