PERFECT TOY RECORDS proudly presents: Shake-A-Leg Vol. 2 Club Night Compilation (2013)

Ah – the old ‘put together a compilation that recreates the feel of one of your club night sets’ eh? Actually yeah. Problem with that? One trusts not when the djs in question are Tramp Records boss/ crate digger extraordinaire, Tobias Kirmayer, and latin-jazz producer Jerker Kluge a.k.a the hosts and djs of Munich’s Shake-A-Leg club night. Cue their second Shake-A-Leg compilation bursting at the seams with big cuts selected from a wealth of funk, soul, reggae, latin, afrobeat…and dancefloor jazz. Dancefloor jazz? Oh alright – if you must. Anyone familiar with Kirmayer’s Tramp Records’ output will know that he specialises in releasing old stuff that should have been big the first time around but somehow slipped under the radar and also new stuff that sounds kind of like stuff that was big the the first time around. Both the new and the old then.

Among the cuts representing the ‘new and sounding like bigness’ from the first time around is opener Zulu Walk from The mighty Mocambos assisted in its authentic sound by the presence of a man who was actually there back in the day – Afrika Bambataa here accompanied by cohort Charlie Funk. There’s also Radio Utopia and Bajka’s Morcheeba-esque, piano-powered soul take on Bob-anthem Get Up Stand Up and Afro Latin Soul Orchestra’s energetic – er – afro latin number Presentations. Representing the ‘old and should have been big’ are Tommy Dark’s uptempo funk cut Wobble Legs, and CJ Leach’s superb funky soul burner Branded. If jazz is your thing – you can slot Dizzy Gillespie/ Lalo Schfrin funky fusion collab. Unicorn (off 1978’s Free Ride LP) in the latter group and the almost Wass/ Hiberbole style ‘northern jazz’ cut Hey Kitty Kitty form Jacknife Lee. And it wouldn’t do to end without mentioning that this compilation includes Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers’ version of Sunny. Clearly Kirmayer and Kluge operate via a ‘no filler’ approach then. If they could just apply that to their compilation titles as well…
(Out 3 June on Perfect Toy Records)


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