Juno Recommends Funk / Reissues April 2020

Review: It would be fair to say that the latest edition in DJ Soopasoul's "Soopastole" edits series is one of the producer's biggest yet. A-side "Sex C.R.E.A.M" is particularly potent, with the mash-up maestro layering the vocals from Wu-Tang Clan classic "C.R.E.A.M" over a chunky beat crafted out of classic James Brown samples. To our ears, it's arguably better than the Wu-Tang original, or at least a little more dancefloor-friendly. Fittingly, Brown gets the treatment on the flip with Soopasoul getting busy with the EQs on a suitably heavy but stripped back "dub edit" of all-time-classic "Sex Machine". While it probably didn't need tampering with, he's done a very good job of delivering a version that successfully takes the track in a different direction.

Review: We've run out of ways to describe the Breaks & Beats series of functional, floor-friendly re-edits, though by now everyone should know what to expect, namely light-touch reworks of classic funk and soul jams that extend the drum breaks for easier mixing. The series latest missive begins with a must-have rework of Tony Alvon & The Belairs' "Sexy Coffee Pot", a rare-as-hen's-teeth 1969 B-side that wraps rhythm and blues guitars and firing horn lines around one of the greatest drum breaks of all time. Over on side B it's all about Stanley Turrentine's 1972 jazz-funk gem "Sister Sanctified" (a track that has never before appeared on a seven-inch single, even unofficially) and its attractive fusion of snappy breakbeats, hazy sax riffs and liquid electric piano lines.

Review: Upront to juno ! In 2009, a group of seasoned funk and soul session musicians joined forces to record a rousing rhythm & blues-meets-funk cover version of Duffy's 2007 single "Mercy". Subsequently released on both Tri Sound and Acid Jazz, the track has become a must-have for soul DJs ever since.Sounding as though it might have been recorded in the late 60's it has a powerful funk driving backbeat ,thumping bass, soaring male soul vocal and screaming swirling hammond organ. Only 300 pressed. Don't sleep !

Review: The Altered Tapes crew's sneaky remixes are amongst the finest around, as this latest must-check "45" proves. "Cherchez" has been doing the rounds for a couple of years digitally, so it's great to see it finally land on wax. It's a flip of Ghostface Killah's "Cherchez La Ghost", with the venerable rapper's verses rising above a weighty backing track crafted from hand picked samples of classic funk jams. Weighty and floor-friendly, it's the kind of bootleg revision that's guaranteed to get the party started. "Cherchez La B-Boy" on the flip strips out most of his vocals and instead chooses to base the action around fat funk breakbeats and an even more sizable bassline.

Review: The Big Payback series hits third volume and again bangs together classic soul and funk artists with hip hop giants. This JB & The Soul Mates take on Busta Rhymes. They layer up jazz-funk drums and synths into lively arrangements that are topped with sick verses from the master and plenty of James Brown ad libs also colour the groove. It's a high energy party starter, but if you need something a little less busy, the instrumental on the flip has you covered with its big horns and sax lines getting hands in the air.

Review: Those who've studied the history of hip-hop will know the crucial role these two tracks played in the early Bronx block party scene. Later down the line, golden era hip-hop artists extensively sampled both records, making their breaks amongst the most recognizable in rap. On the A-side you'll find The Mighty Ryeders hazy, glassy-eyed 1970s soul classic "Evil Vibrations", a cut that many will recognize from its use in De La Soul's "A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays". Over on side B there's a chance to savour Family Tree's disco-funk era workout "Family Tree", a heavier affair that remains as fresh in 2020 as it did when it was first released in 1975.

Review: Sampled by the likes of Groove Armada and The Herbaliser, "Turn Off The Lights" runs with one of those bass licks you've known forever without realising. Flip for the jazz boogie badness of "Fuel For The Fire". Taken from the same 1975 album, here we find the same vocalist, Linda Logan, sharpening her tongue and getting her scat on with furiously funky results. Hard to find on 45, it's yet another example of AOTN's expert curation prowess.

Review: Briefly active in the late 1970s, Solat was a Dutch funk group made up of musicians from Surinam and the Dutch Antilles. They're undoubtedly best remembered by collectors for their 1977 single "Change The World", original copies of which regularly change hands for hundreds of pounds online. Here it gets the reissue treatment courtesy of Mr Bongo. Rich in crunchy Clavinets, tropical guitars, bold group vocals and a touch of steamy disco flavour, "Change The World" is a genuinely life-affirming affair. "Try, Try" meanwhile is an altogether more bass-heavy affair - a Blaxploitation-era slab of disco-funk reminiscent of Mass Production at their most righteous.

Review: Expansion's latest must-check seven-inch mines Roy Ayers' 1983 album "Lots Of Love", a sparkling post-disco set that combined the vibraphonist's usual jazz-funk flavours with colourful synthesizers and genuine boogie flavours. "Everybody" on the A-side is particularly potent; a lolloping synth-boogie head-nodder rich in life-affirming synthesizer squelches, rubbery jazz-funk bass, fluid Ayers vibraphone solos and background vocals that sneakily reference "Everybody Loves The Sunshine". Flipside "And Then We Were One" is if anything even more summery in feel, with mazy synth and vibraphone motifs dancing atop a killer jazz-funk groove. It's a little more up-tempo than the A-side, but arguably a little less addictive.

Review: Back in 1980, Roy Ayers assembled the Eighties Ladies - a soulful vocal quintet whose members included sometime Aquarian Dream vocalist Sylvia Striplin. Sadly the group didn't last long, but their vibrant "Ladies Of The Eighties" single - a fine disco-tinged slab of boogie/jazz-funk fusion - became a big club hit. Their debut album, which is here reissued for the first time, is equally as impressive, with highlights including the rushing, part-rapped, attitude-laden "Tell Him" - later covered in the bruk era by West London outfit BB Boogie - cheery "I Knew That Love" and the liquid slap bass-propelled intergalactic space funk jam "It's Easy To Move" standing out. Throughout, Roy Ayers' production and arrangements are as tidy as you'd expect.

Review: This popular and on going edit series returns after two big instalments from J. Period. Now it is Amerigo at the helm and he pulls together an all-star league of funk, soul and hip hop giants, then rewires their musical DNA into new tribute tracks that are full of life and built from essential James Brown building blocks. Bob Marley is first to be stitched into "Who Is Mr Brown?", which becomes a lazy dub of the highest order. Elsewhere Busta Rhymes, Notorious BIG and Mobb Deep all lend their considerable vocal skills to "Sex Machine" and "Godfather Of Soul."

Review: The Allergies first double A-side of the year is so strong, we reckon it may well be one of their best singles to date. A-side "Felony" is particularly potent: a hybrid Northern/Southern Soul stomper rich in crunchy drums, heavy bass, punchy horns and heart-aching vocal samples lifted from (we think) an obscure soul record. The production is formidably fuzzy, making it sound like something recorded in Detroit or Memphis in the 1960s rather than cooked up in their studio in 2019. Flipside "Rile 'Em Up" is similarly weighty, though this time they're off on a Latin funk tip with a little help from regular rapper Andy Cooper, soul-stress Marietta Smith, saxophonist Mr Woodnote and a handful of killer boogaloo samples.

Review: The legendary Roy Ayers has a wealth of great material to his name but Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981 might just be the cream of the crop. It's packed with gold that fuses soul and funk, jazz and disco into a load of killer cuts that never got their own release. There are husky vocal tracks featuring Merry Clayton on "Oh What A Lonely Feeling," "I Really Love You" and "What's the T?", sensual soul stirrers from Carla Vaughn such as "Mystic Voyage" and "Together Forever" and of course liquid synths and rhythm sections underpinning each of the tracks.

Review: Periplo marks the solo debut of Early Sounds Recordings co-founder Pellegrino S. Snichelotto, following occasional contributions to other material from the label's extended family of artists. Interestingly, the six-track set shares some stylistic similarities with friends' Nu Guinea's Tony Allen Experiments mini-album, chiefly the producer's delay and reverb-laden fusion of live instruments and vintage analogue hardware. Stylistically, most of the tracks sit somewhere between jazz-funk, cosmic funk, and the kind of melodious Afro-Cosmic fare that was once a staple of Northern Italy's eccentric club scene. There's plenty of hazy musical humidity to enoy, too, with the impeccable "Ad Libitum" standing out.

Review: Ubiquity is back with another of its two part 7"s, this time from contemporary soul group The Soul Surfers. Experts at covering the greats, they recently turned their hand to a classic from The JB's, while this time out it is Kool & The Gang's classic "Summer Madness" that gets a deep-cut and sexy make over. Part 1 is a sensuous slow burner with downtempo drums and heavenly guitar playing, while part 2 has harder drum grooves and dreamy , psyched-out guitars. It's another ageless rework that you need in your life.

Review: Having re-released Rim Kwaku's long lost Rim Arrives album, BBE follow it up with more dusty disco treasures from the Ghanaian hit maker's repertoire. From the blistering horns and thundering drum rolls of the near-nine-minute romp "Shine The Ladies" right the way through the looser, more Afrobeat-focussed "Peace Of Mind" by way of the emphatic Stevie Wonder-style showmanship of "I'm A Songwriter" it's a collection that still sparkles with soul 30 years after they were recorded. If you're unaware of Rim's story, you'd be wise to check it; from Quincy Jones endorsements to homelessness in the space of 24 hours, Rim's tales are as serious as his music is funky.

Review: "Huxley's Howl" by Bay-area keyboard savant Howard Wales was originally released as a 7in single in the early '70s on his own Costal Records imprint. Luv N'Haight is proud to present the first official reissue of this classic slice of mid-tempo, instrumental funk, loaded with stabbing horns, explosive Hammond organ and heavy drums with a nice dose of psychedelic vibes to round out it out. The B-side "My Blues" chugs along at a slower pace, with a "bluesier" sound as the title suggests while keeping the same killer psych flavor as the A-side.

Known primarily for his work alongside Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia on their collaborative album "Hooteroll" while also appearing on the Dead's seminal "American Beauty" LP, Howard Wales had already established himself as a talented player during the mid-1960's working and touring with the likes of Ronnie Hawkins, the Four Tops and the Godfather of Soul himself James Brown. A true original and progenitor of the oft-used but mostly maligned "Acid Jazz" genre, Howard Wales paved the way for the psychotropically enhanced excursions of 70s' Jazz, Funk, Soul and fusion.

Review: Come on, its 2016, of course there are soul bands from Russia. More specifically, there's soul bands from Russia that make absolutely incredible music, and The Soul Surfers are one of them. They've been busy over the last 6-7 years, and the Spasibo label have been instrumental in getting their sound across to the masses. "Vladimir's Groove" is deep, funky and wet, filled with an awesome slap-back bass, a trippy cascade of organs and just a general feeling of "yeah". "Igor's Groove" is slower, more laid-back and possibly even better and bolder, bringing out the best out of this band and solidifying them as serious contenders for best soul kings of the post 2000's. A band to watch - keep 'em peeled!

Review: Ratgrave is just one of the many projects Max Graef is involved in, on this occasion with Julius Conrad. The project first surfaced on Funkineven's Apron Records in 2018, and now it's back on Black Focus for another trip through oddball electronics aplenty with a healthy dose of soul and funk poured in for good measure. From the catchy sing along "World Aid" to the dusty boogie hybrid of "Instant Toothpaste", this is an album crafted by a duo with serious chops that doesn't take itself too seriously. Get down, get funky, get weird.