ARP FRIQUE Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Niels Nieuborg is Arp Frique, an artist who made a bold and brilliant debut on Rush Hour a few years ago and has never looked back since. His 2018 album Welcome To The Colorful World of Arp Frique showed off his fresh take on disco with a host of collaborators and now he once again lays down the beats while various guests appear on this new EP on Colourful World. Elements of zouk, highlife, Afro-disco and many more worldly rhythms lend these cuts their unique and characterful style. Analog drum machines, kick rhythms and psyched out synths all sit next to great vocals for a kaleidoscopic trip like no other.

Review: Arp Frique & The Perpetual Singers come together for this most personal gospel funk album which was inspired by the birth of Frique's daughter, Jesamy. It finds the Amsterdam-based multi-instrumentalist mixing up organic funk with obscure synths, bubbly basslines that are always on the move with swirling guitars that add the colour and all make for an unusual and interesting mix of P-funk and gospel-disco. There are plenty of universal messages throughout which all emphasise the need for unconditional love while legendary vocalists like Dennis Bovell, Muriel Blijd, Mariseya, Brandon Delagraentiss and Rocq-E Harrell contribute to the powerful sound. Delagraentiss's choir, The Gospel Experience, also do their bit by adding big, rich, heartfelt vocals. It's quite the listen.

Review: Arp Frique & The Perpetual Singers might sound like a legacy supersonic jazz act, but they're in fact a nascent formation, surfing on pre-established waves drummed up by the band initially fronted by Niels Nieuborg. Now reforming as a five-piece band extra-dubbed the Perpetual Singers, 'Frique brought a potent fusion of P-funk and Houston disco hybrid in 2024, kicking off with the self-released 'Feather Father/Elena' and now continuing the jam with three newly remixed versions by Another Taste. Divine, pentitent and shriving, the likes of 'Holy Ghost' and 'Father Father' focus squarely on higher powers above, as a universal vessels for funk expression and bombast.