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

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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

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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

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