Juno Recommends Funk / Rare Groove / Reissues : May 2023

Review: Berlin-based Voodoocuts knows how to mix up floor-filing sounds from across a range of genres and eras. Now the sonic shapeshifter serves up a first EP for Adeen that packs in five killer cuts. 'La Culebra' kicks off with big horns and Latin rhythms which carry on through the dance-heavy 'Mi Amor'. 'B-boy Paco' completes the first side of vinyl with lively rhythms, horn stabs and florid Spanish vocals. 'Que Rico' kicks off on the flip with another dense arrangement packed with cowbells, funky bass riffs, woodblock hits, shakers and plenty more. 'Linda Negra' is a sleazy yet seductive samba shuffle that brings the heat and will get any party heated up.

Review: Fingier Records is a new Acid Jazz sub-label that is back with a brand new 7" from The Kevin Fingier Collective. It's a real dance floor heater that is perfectly aged and authentic as it mixes up Northern Soul and r&b with driving guitar rhythms and steamy piano chords. The horns are killer but the vocal is the icing on the cake. On the flip things get Latin flavoured with the bossa-tinged mod jazz of 'The Great Akerman' which is defined by lush flute and organ vamps. This is a great taster of the full length to come from The Kevin Fingier Collective.

Review: Brazillian Yoruba artist Eduardo Brecho has been snapped up for this new series and limited run of 7"s on Barbershop Records. It features a pair of classic remakes starting with the cult Fela Kuti tune 'Water Get No Enemy.' His version is an uptempo take in which he sings purely in Yoruba and it is beautiful to hear. London poet Juno then joins in on the flip as the pair remake Gil Scott Heron's 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'. It is a well-worn classic by now but takes on new charms in this sublime version.

Review: Cumbias En Moog's Cumbia De Sal is an exemplary psychedelic cumbia single - from the main pushers of the niche South American genre, Vampisoul - which this time offers a distinct usage of the Moog synth. The Cumbias En Moog project began in Colombia as a wilfully unique vision that combined traditional cumbia rhythms with vintage synthesizers; two of the group's choicest cuts make it to vinyl here, 'Cumbia De Sal' and 'Cumbia Sobre El Mar'. Far more synthy than guitarry (most cumbia falls into the latter camp) the tracks pit an offbeat, goofy rhythm with stark Moogs, resonant leads and happily crude playing, while their haunting choral vocals add a human touch to said robotics.

Review: Klaus Weiss was a German jazz drummer who left behind a rich legacy of library music, especially on the series of Sound Music albums for Golden Ring Records in the late 70s-early 80s. In the digging era, Weiss' impeccable grooves now fetch serious prices second hand, and so be thankful for the likes of Dynamite Cuts reaching over into the world of library music reissues to pull four perfect joints from unreachable realms back into the hands of real music fans. From low down nasty funk to space-age star gazing, Weiss packed a lot into these tracks, and now you can cop them on a sureshot 7".

Review: The Harlem Gospel Traveler's much loved second album Look Up won the group plenty of fans so this follow up release is much anticipated indeed. 'Help Me To Understand' comes with the heavenly vocals of Aaron Frazer and was written and produced by Eli "Paperboy" Reed. It's a tune defined by its spine tinging vocal harmonies and lullaby like melodies with emotive acoustic guitars adding extra layers of lushness. As well as that new tune, this 45rpm comes backed with the still superb title track from the aforementioned album.

Review: The work of legendary drummer turned library musician Klaus Weiss continues to be reissued. For this series, Dynamite Cuts are looking back on a mid-1970s series of EPs released by Weiss originally for the famous library Sound Music. Carrying a minimal production that still has appeal for the modern listener (don't Dynamite know it), the four tracks here are curt, squelchy and beat-centric, with highlights including the clavichord-wacky 'Frogs', the sonically obese 'Productive Facilities', and the space-age drum freakout 'Coordinates Meeting'.

Review: Dynamite Cuts brings the heat once more with a second volume of their Sound Music 45s series. Siegfried Schwab takes care of the A-side with 'Getting High', a scorching funk workout with hard-worked guitar chords and precise percussion over lots of wah-wah effects. 'Feel It; flip the script with a superbly stripped-down jazz-funk lounge sound. Klaus Weiss then steps up on 'Time For Rhythm' with some loose, percussive funk beats that are raw and organic, then Peter Thomas closes down with 'Documentation', a more richly instrumental and multi-layered jazz-funk sound that conveys real grandeur.

Review: U.S. Cinematic outfit Whatitdo Archive Group returns to explore the worlds of mid-Century exotica and library music with Palace of a Thousand Sounds, out on May 5th. This is a rare case of a contemporary "library music" or "archival" record released commercially. Rather than being library music outright, the band, Whatitdo Archive Group, instead aim to reinterpret the many sounds that waft from its esoteric world - from exotica to lounge to 'world'. This album hears them dive into the connotations we might find from 1970s adventure movies, critiquing genres like Spaghetti Westerns and exotic murder mysteries through ironic analog vintagism, chase-scene funk tension, and all-out skill.

Review: It's five up for the Palmetto Street label and this one finds them turning to Ben Pirani & The Means Of Production who manage to again find new ground in this great EP. The lead single from the 7" is a soft and melancholic sad song with none other than Brian Jackson (who collaborated with Gil Scott Heron) playing the flute parts. He cuts through the smokey mood with daring harmonies while on the flip things get even more forceful with 'Something So Precious'. Pirani goes it alone on the vocals for this one while a strong quartert adds the sumptuous melodies.

Review: Always brimming with partystarting energy, Brooklyn Funk Essentials' motto "funk is what you make it" has carried them for three decades. Coming up in Brooklyn and finding a local fanbase for their electricity on the big smoke's live stage, said electricity later translated to a deluge of full-length LPs showing off the best way to represent funk in the present day. Intuition is their latest album, released by fellow fun-lovers Doraodo. Reflecting a recent line-up change (Alison Limerick and Desmond Foster now pairing up on lead vocals) this project is boundlessly bouncy and confident, spanning bog-standard freak funk to headsier nods to styles like bossa nova and dub.

Review: This is a first-ever CD-reissue of legendary funk outfit Funkadelic's Greatest Hits album - known amongst fans as 'the sheep album' - from back in 1975. It came on Westbound and has plenty of the most enduringly iconic tunes as one of George Clinton's group's most iconic covers in a catalogue full of them. The tracks here are taken from the band's first six albums and features 45 mixes, LP mixes and an edit of the instrumental 'A Joyful Process' which has never before been reissued. The whole thing has been remastered as the original was known for being a little thin in the low end.