GALACTIC - Ya-Ka-May (2010)

Chunky & funky New Orleans sounds from Galactic, as far reaching and unpigeonholeable as ever on their second album for Anti, possibly the the most diverse of their career!! Ya-Ka-May rolls out some of the Hip Hop Funk vibe that carried their previous album, but that's just one flavor in a boldly spiced entry, with brassy Crescent City Funk, heavy percussive groovers, swampy Soul & Funk Rock numbers and more. Galactic's been pumping long enough to earn the requests of young guns and legends alike, and this record features guests including Allen Toussaint, Irma Thomas, Rebirth Brass Band, Trombone Shorty & Corey Henry and many more!!

Tracklisting:

1. Friends Of Science
2. Boe Money feat. The Rebirth Brass Band
3. Double It feat. Big Freedia
4. Heart Of Steel feat. Irma Thomas
5. Wild Man feat. Big Chief Bo Dollis
6. Bacchus feat. Allen Toussaint
7. Katey vs. Nobby feat. Katey Red & Sissy Nobby
8. Cineramascope feat. Trombone Shorty & Corey Henry
9. Dark Water feat. John Boutte
10. Do It Again feat. Cheeky Blakk
11. Liquor Pang feat. Josh Cohen & Ryan Scully
12. Kreve D'Etat
13. You Don't Know feat. Glen David Andrews
14. Speaks His Mind feat. Walter Wolfman Washington
15. Bonus

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS - Ten Years On (2009)

Masterful instrumentals from New Mastersounds, still nailing it after all these years, from furiously funky uptempo gems, to more measured moddish numbers, to some spacier Jazz Funk tunes!! The group has been at this for long enough that each player's parts are perfectly intuitive with the others, but most importantly, without prettying up the gritty, raw Soul & Funk at the core. Eddie Roberts guitar work has never sounded better, the others are just as fantastic, with organ & piano from Joe Tatton, bass by Pete Shand and drums by Simon Allen!!

Tracklisting:

1. San Frantico
2. Soulshine
3. MRG
4. Chocolate Chip feat. Chip Wickham
5. Narcolepsy
6. Limsy
7. Dusty Groove feat. JD73
8. The Road To Fuji Rock
9. Cielo feat. Sam Bell
10. OOOM feat. Skerik
11. Make Me Proud!

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

LAURA VANE & THE VIPERTONES - Laura Vane & The Vipertones (2009)

Heavy, classic styled Funk & Soul from Laura Vane & The Vipertones, really killing it in a similar vein as some of our favorite female fronted, blue-eyed female fronted UK Funk, but it an even harder grooving, grittier and anthemic mode!! It's pretty heavy on the bottom end, thanks to some hard hitting drums and percussion, with a mod Soul touches and Motown indebted moments. Laura's vocals are gritty and sweet at the same time, with a genuine skill and depth, and the players are great, too. Definitely worth checking out for fans of Kylie Auldist, Lizzy Parks and Alice Russell!!

Tracklisting:

1. Roof Off
2. Steam
3. Am I Dreaming?
4. Man Of Your Word
5. Did It Anyway
6. No Words
7. You Give Me What I Want
8. Good Morning
9. The Squeeze
10. Mean Lover
11. So Much Love

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

SOUND STYLISTICS - Greasin' The Wheels (2009)

Plenty of grease here, given that The Sound Stylistics are one of the most cooking combos around!! The set's a fresh smoker from this damn funky power trio, who get some great extra help here from Snowboy, Shawn Lee, Eddie Roberts, and others, a hip expanded lineup who really make the album groove greatly!! Many numbers feature some excellent horn parts on top of the fierce keyboards, riffing guitar, and heavy drums, but horns used in a way that opens up past the norm, with a bit of the complicated lines you might hear in a funky big band set, even though the size of this lineup is a lot lot smaller. Keyboards include Hammond, Fender Rhodes, and Wurlitzer, plus a bit of Arp as well, and the record sounds more like a stone funky soundtrack than most other Deep Funk sets of this nature!!

Tracklisting:

1. Tie One On
2. The Crisis Generator
3. Crack Away Jack
4. Eye Of The Storm
5. Knucklehead
6. The Taking Of Peckham 343
7. The Burner
8. Say It Aint So
9. One For The Road
10. El Nino
11. Cornholin
12. Big Pieces

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

NAOMI SHELTON & THE GOSPEL QUEENS - What Have You Done, My Brother? (2009)

A Gospel album, but one with Deep Funk roots, the first full length album from Naomi Shelton, a vocalist we first came to love for her funky 45s on the Desco and Daptone labels!! The music's a great mix of Gospel vocals and some of the Heavy Soul sounds we've come to expect from Daptone, small combo instrumentation led by keyboardist Cliff Driver, recorded with a gritty edge that takes us back to the best Southern Soul sounds of the late 60s. Production is impeccable, a perfect setting for Naomi's great lead vocals, and some hip support from the Gospel Queens trio, and although contemporary, the album's like finding a batch of rare Soul Gospel singles in the back of some dusty record shop!!

Tracklisting:

1. What Is This
2. What More Can I Do?
3. I'll Take The Long Road
4. What Have You Done
5. I Need You To Hold My Hand
6. Trouble In My Way
7. Jordan River
8. He Knows My Heart
9. Am I Asking Too Much?
10. By Your Side
11. Lift My Burdens
12. Change Is Gonna Come

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

UPTOWN FUNK EMPIRE - The Empire Strikes Back (2009)

A sweet funky project from Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart, a set that's filled with lots of 70s Funk elements, but which keeps up the groove we've come to love in all of his previous Patchworks projects!! There's a great blend here between live Funk instrumentation and dancefloor direction, almost a return to the drenched-in-classics sounds we first came to love in the French scene over a decade ago, which have been lost in recent years by some of the too-trashy artists out there, only to be reclaimed wonderfully by Bruno in a record like this!! The grooves run a gamut that includes Spiritual Jazz, Club Funk, and a bit of boogie, but all done with a style that's lean enough to be dubbed deep funk at some moments too, a much wider palette of sounds than you'd get from other funky artists working today, but handled beautifully by Hovart, with a really deep understanding of a wide range of music from years back. Vocals are by Noel McKoy, Janice & Ange, and our brother Juan Rozoff!!

Tracklisting:

1. The Empire Strikes Back (Intro)
2. Boogie
3. N.O.W feat. Juan Rozoff
4. We Stand At The Back Of The Bus feat. Janice & Ange
5. You've Got To Have Freedom feat. Janice & Ange
6. Keep On Givin' it Up
7. No One Gonna Stop Us Now feat. Noel Mc Koy
8. Take You Out
9. I'm a Manchild
10. I Guess That You Don't Mind feat. JRM
11. Celestial Blues feat. Ange
12. Please Mr. Postman
13. Walkin´ Like The Ginger
14. Good Time (Bye Bye Mr. Dynamite)
15. I Used To Spend My Time
16. The Empire Strikes Back (Outro)

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

SHAWN LEE & CLUTCHY HOPKINS - Fascinating Fingers (2009)

Textural mood Funk from the team of Shawn Lee and Clutchy Hopkins, the second collaborative batch from this dynamic and well matched duo!! We loved Clutch Of The Tiger, but they take a profound step forward on Fascinating Fingers, if they were feeling each others styles out on that set, and sort of democratically laying it out into a singular vision, they've really grown into a united front here. The bottom end raw Funk groove is a unifying factor, often spare and and a bit ominous with pulp cinematic sound library touches in the keys and strings, and the strings are pretty special this time out, from Morricone influenced accents, to Middle Eastern inflections, and an overall pastiche of hypnotic and ever evolving sounds!!

Tracklisting:

1. 70 Mph Isn't Fast Enough To Get Out Of Nebraska
2. 7 Inch
3. Mimi Tatonka
4. Root Trees
5. Cross Rhodes
6. Chapter 2
7. Ancient Chinese Secret
8. Fish Sauce
9. Name Game
10. Bootie Beat
11. Willie GrooveMaker
12. What More Can I Say (Top Chillin')

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website 1
Visit The Artist Website 2

LORD NEWBORN & THE MAGIC SKULLS - Lord Newborn & The Magic Skulls (2009)

Massively messed-up grooves, and a rare one-off collaboration between Money Mark, Shawn Lee, and Tommy Guerrero, all artists we've come to love for their own funky music over the years!! The sound here is as wild as you'd expect from the cover, a really trippy approach to Funk, spun out with the same heavy grooves you'd get on some of Lee's Funk sets for Ubiquity, mixed with the offbeat production modes that Money Mark brought to his early Mo Wax recordings!! There's a definite dose of psyche on most tracks, showing the increasing influence from this end of the spectrum on 21st Century beatheads, and the fuzzier edges make for a nice change amidst Lee's usually cleaner grooves. Some vocals appear on the album, but often buried down deeply in the instrumental mix, leaving most of the album's charm to come from fuzzy guitar, trippy keyboards, and heavy beats!!

Tracklisting:

1. A Phase Shifter I'm Going Through
2. Astro Blue
3. Dime Bag Conspiracy
4. Escape From Prism
5. Disco Loco
6. Rainy Day Dog
7. That's Right (It's Time To Get Down)
8. She's My Melody
9. Ringa Ding Ding Ding
10. L.I.V.E.
11. Revenge Of The Fillet O'Fish
12. Ancient Scrolls
13. Crazy Apartment

Buy Here
Visit The Artist Website

SOULIVE - Up Here (2009)

Great stuff from one of those groups who just keep on grooving over the years, always hitting hard with their own unique take on Deep Funk!! We first loved Soulive back when the group were issuing music on self-produced albums, and they've really come a long way in their sound, and have learned a lot about their instruments in the process. Things here are super-tight, but never overly-jamming, and if anything, it almost feels like the group have stepped back a bit towards their roots, yet with all the prowess picked up over the years. Alan Evans brings some mighty drums to the group, and also sings just a bit, Eric Krasno plays guitar, and Neal Evans handles both organ, bass keys, and clavinet!! Great!!

Tracklisting:

1. Up Right
2. The Swamp
3. Too Much feat. Nigel Hall
4. Backwards Jack
5. PJ's
6. Tonight
7. Hat Trick
8. For Granted
9. Prototype feat. Nigel Hall

Buy Here

SOOPASOUL - Twin Stix (2009)

Funky work from Soopasoul, an artist who grabbed our ears with a few hip singles, and who sounds great here in the space of a full length album!! Most of the album's got a Deep Funk work, done in a style that's sometimes not as live as other combos out there these days, but which still has a very sharp edge, lots of riffing guitar, blasting horns, and tight drums, plus warm keyboards that cook up the tunes nicely, shifting the groove between 60´s Mod Soul and 70´s Funk. About half the tracks have vocals, mostly by Nikeya Booker, who's a great Soul singer, but also featuring Dionne Charles on one track, and Sitzka on another!!

Tracklisting:

1. My Place
2. Hot & Cold feat. Dionne Charles
3. Brand Nu
4. Lookin' For Freddie
5. Soopasoul Theme
6. Swing Down
7. Hustlin'
8. Ya Lookin' Tight
9. It's Just Begun
10. Twin Stix
11. Do Me Wrong
12. A Wild Mad Beat
13. Brand Nu (Lack Of Afro Remix)

Buy Here

THE HI-FLY ORCHESTRA - Mambo Atomico (2008)

The grooviest work so far from The Hi-Fly Orchestra, a set that moves even farther past the sublime territory of their debut, into a really classic blend of Soul Jazz and Latin rhythms, produced to perfection with a wonderfully solid feel!! Instrumentation here is all live, a blend of sax, flute, trombone, Fender Rhodes, piano, and plenty of percussion, all handled with a feel that takes us back to some of our favorite territory on Verve Records from the 60´s, those wonderful records that blended elements from the Latin underground with some of the harder Jazz leanings of the period, a legacy these guys are happy to add to with their wonderful grooves!!

Tracklisting:

1. Carioquinha
2. Polonesa
3. Crosstown Traffic
4. Mrs.Shing-A-Ling
5. Hi-Fly Stomp
6. Mambo Atomico
7. Afro-Boo
8. Chove Chuva feat. Miriam Aida
9. Gettin' Down
10. The New B!
11. Sp Samba

Buy Here

OCOTE SOUL SOUNDS & ADRIAN QUESADA - The Alchemist Manifesto (2008)

The hippest work so far from Ocote Soul Sounds, a really funky little record with lots of sweet 70´s touches!! The groove here is almost in the territory of recent El Michels Affair work, a combination of small combo Deep Funk with some broader, more spacious 70´s touches, bits of Latin rhythms, soundtrack styles, and more, all folded into a groove that's electrified somewhat, but still warm and soulful throughout. There's a great balance here between gritty rhythms and smooth-gliding instrumentation, played by Adrian Quesada on guitars and keyboards, and Martin Perna on reeds, with help from a nice assortment of additional players on other tracks. Easily one of the funkiest albums ever on the ESL label!!

Tracklisting:

1. The Grand Elixir
2. La Reja
3. El Pescador
4. Les Dunes D'Ostende
5. The Alchemist Manifesto
6. Gunpowder
7. Hacia Un Manana Mejor
8. Contra El Sol
9. Pelican
10. One Hundred Years
11. Carino

Buy Here

QUANTIC AND HIS COMBO BARBARO - Tradition In Transition (2009)

Quantic really blows the roof off with this one, taking us even farther on a musical journey than ever before, and making us bow to his mighty talents in ways we never expected!! The album's a really unique session recorded in Colombia, with help from an international batch of musicians and studio talents, a wicked extension of the Latin grooves that Quantic added to his funky mix a few years ago, but with far more sophistication and live instrumentation than he's ever used before!! This album's not just a simple blend of Salsa elements and funky grooves, and instead, it's a richly complicated tapestry of music, one that not only draws from colombian sounds, but also some of the more sophisticated aspects of other Latin American scenes too, no surprise, given that performers here include Alfredo Linares on piano, Freddy Colorado on congas, Fernando Ovejo Silva on bass, Angel Hernandez on trumpet, and Arthur Verocai on arrangements. Mighty Malcolm Catto is on deck with some heavy drums, and most of the instrumentation here is acoustic, and richly varied throughout. Sublime, amazing, and a record that wins us over way more than we ever might have expected, and dammit, we already had a hell of a lot of respect for Will Holland!!

Tracklisting:

1. The Dreaming Mind (Pt. 1)
2. Mas Pan
3. Linda Morena
4. Undelivered Letter
5. Un Canto A Mi Tierra
6. Mambo Los Quantic
7. Albela
8. New Morning
9. I Just Fell In Love Again
10. Cancao Do Deserto
11. Arianita

Buy Here

EL MICHELS AFFAIR - Enter The 37th Chamber (2009) (NEW LINK)

Cinematic funky Soul instrumentals from the El Michels Affair, the loose NYC collective's long awaited full length nod to the Wu Tang Clan!! The crew brings their tried and true slow rolling and dirty Funk to their interpretations of classic Wu Tang tracks, with some straight up beautiful sophisticated Soul backdrops, too, and Leon & the crew pull it all off masterfully!! The RZA's sonic stamp is too innovative and idiosyncratic for a simple live band rehash, and the group is wise to use the famous crackling sample built soundscapes to craft both an homage to the Wu Tang's best material, as well as the 70´s Funk, Soul, and cinema sounds that informed them in the first place!!

Tracklisting:

1. Duel Of The Iron Mics
2. C.R.E.A.M.
3. Mystery Of Chessboxin'
4. Can It All Be So Simple
5. Uzi (Pinky Ring)
6. Interlude
7. Glaciers Of Ice
8. Cherchez La Ghost
9. Criminology
10. Heaven & Hell
11. Bring Da Ruckus
12. Protect Ya Neck
13. Incarcerated Scarfaces
14. Shimmy Shimmy Ya
15. Outro

Buy Here

SWEET VANDALS - Lovelite (2009) (NEW LINK)

The lovelite's burning strong on this second set from The Sweet Vandals, an album that cooks even more than their debut!! The grooves are even tighter than before, still steeped in 60´s Soul influences, but with a heavier dose of Funk too, a mad-romping blend of hard drums, bad-stepping bass, and heavy Hammond, all topped by the searing Soul vocals of Mayka Edjole!! These guys hail from Spain, but have a Deep Funk groove that's plenty universal, and with an album this strong, you can bet we'll be hearing plenty from them on this side of the Atlantic in coming years!!

Tracklisting:

1. Thank You For You
2. Good Thing
3. Take Me Now
4. Let's Have Some Fun
5. I Hate To Hate You
6. Funky Children
7. Againstupidity
8. What About Love
9. Every Woman Is A Diva
10. Speak Music
11. Opposties

Buy Here

FLEVANS - 27 Devils (2009) (NEW LINK)

Great recent work from one of the earliest artists on the Tru Thoughts label, funky Flevans, working here in a variety of styles that keeps things fresh throughout!! Some of the tunes have the spare, beat-heavy feel of Flevans' early work, while others have a more developed sense of songcraft, full lyrics that really tie things together, and guitar-heavy instrumentation that may well cross the album into much bigger audiences than before. Some of the tunes are pretty darn catchy, yet never too poppy, thanks to the work of vocalists Shona Foster and Sarah Scott!! Great!!

Tracklisting:

1. Hold On feat. Sarah Scott
2. Pretty From A Distance
3. 27 Devils
4. More On The Way feat. Shona Foster
5. Mad Perks
6. On And Out feat. Sarah Scott
7. Endless Things
8. Flicker
9. All To Play For feat. Shona Foster
10. Hold No Water
11. Lay Back feat. Sarah Scott
12. Neckbone

Buy Here

LIZZY PARKS - This And That (2009)

A beautiful change in pace for vocalist Lizzy Parks, an album that's much mellower than her funky debut for the Tru Thoughts label, but in ways that are still plenty darn soulful!! The vibe here is very acoustic, and very laidback, a spare space that has Parks' amazing vocals sliding out wonderfully in really warm territory, a bit of acoustic guitar, percussion, strings, and not much else to back her up, although the album's not without its clever production twists, too, after all, this is the Tru Thoughts label!! Production is by Benedic Lamdin and Riaan Vosloo, the latter of whom also handled the spare strings, and there's a definite dose of Nostalgia 77 sophistication to the session, which both links it to other material on the label, but also sets it apart, given the unique acoustic approach!!

Tracklisting:

1. This And That
2. Forever And A Day (Acoustic Version)
3. Deluge
4. Soul Bird (Acoustic Version)
5. A Taste Of Honey
6. Time (Acoustic Version)
7. Eyes Of A Child
8. Raise The Roof (Acoustic Version)
9. Leaving Home (Acoustic Version)

Buy Here

THE PERCEPTIONS - Introducing The Perceptions (2008)

A Deep Funk supergroup, one that features Snowboy on congas, alongside members of The Sound Stylistics, Speedometer, and James Taylor Quartet!! The groove's as classic as you might expect from such a resume, a sound that starts in 60´s Soul Jazz, and moves up to funky 70´s moments, almost sitting perfectly in that great era when Prestige and Blue Note were changing up their groove at the start of the decade!! Instrumentation features Grant Green-like guitar, Jack McDuff-ish Hammond, and nicely cooking tenor, alto, and flute, all used in different combinations throughout the set!!

.

Tracklisting:

1. Right The Wrong
2. Inside Outside
3. Nickys Knack
4. Rolling And Tumbling
5. Fathead
6. Running The Risk
7. Loopy Doopy
8. Hurricane Warning

Buy Here

THE FANTASTICS - Mighty Righteous (2008)

Hard grooving throwback Funk, mod Jazz, and 60´s R&B flourishes from the mighty Fantastics, a pretty deft mix of instrumental Funk & Soul with a mastery of classic styles!! The core combo features organ & piano from Greg Boraman, who has roots in fellow UK Funk combo the Soul Destroyers and has also sat in with compatriots Reverend Cleatus & The Soul Saviors, so the pedigree is there, plus Pete Collision on guitar, Raydn Hutner on bass and James Rule on the kit. Guests include Mark Norton on sax and flute, Matt Wilding on congas, and UK Soul vocalists Noel McCoy on Soul Child. Great stuff, and another feather in the cap of modern Funk & Soul flag wavers at Freestyle Records!!

Tracklisting:
.
1. Don't Follow Leaders
2. Nine Lives
3. Soul Child
4. The Doctor Is In
5. Kinshasa Five
6. The White Out
7. Stay Hip (Or Die Trying)
8. I Can't Dance With You (Pt. 1)
9. Mighty Righteous
10. Soul Sucka
11. Blue Sunday

Buy Here