Funk Night Us Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Estonian rock band Centre El Muusa hail from Tallinn and in vitally started out as experimental electronic duo Centre Electronique Muusa before evolving into the current set up in 2018. They have dropped a couple of tasty albums since 2020 and now contain with their explorations and fusions of the worlds of jazz, rock, folk, world and country with hints of kraut on the new 7" for Funk Night. 'Moonlight Horses' is a psyched out world of campfire guitars and star gazing riffs that leaves you feeling fully hippie-d up. 'Catching Stars' then heightens the trip with more angular guitars and a big wall of garage-rock sound.

Review: We aren't sure who Inner Space Quartet are be we are sure you will like them. This is the second new music from them this month and it follows a busy 2022 in which they put out three head-turning 7"s on different labels. They seem to be settling for Funk Night as their home this year but soundwise are harder to pin down - there is Thai funk, space rock, jazz, psyched-out guitars and much more all contained with these two expansive and immersive sounds. 'Paranoia Party' is the really 60s-tinged narcotic opener then 'Delay' brings more rock guitar sounds as if from some secret and tripped-out Stones concert in the desert back in the day.

Review: Fresh from dropping another essential seven-inch with his regular Sound Combo band, Misha Paniflov has joined forces with fellow multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee for a string of collaborative singles. This "45" sports two genuinely impressive cuts, each full to bursting with quality live instrumentation. It opens with 'Sigmund Jahn Bossa', a superb fusion of late 1960s library jazz (think Roy Budd's score for Get Carter and you're in the right ballpark), bustling bossa-nova and spiralling psych-funk. Over on the flip the pair continue to deliver lounge, influenced, tongue-in-cheek thrills via the cheap, Sideman drum machine rhythms, tumbling guitars, elongated Hammond organ chords and hazy backing vocals of 'Aquaria'.

Review: What's important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it: Estonian production master Misha Panfilov knows this as much, running a carefully-curated imagecraft cartel, in which his many aliases confound and bemuse us into believing his many works are the doing of someone else. Case in point: At first glance, we were well-duped into believing Penza Penza were some kind of exotic psych supergroup lost to time, but a deeper investigation as to the origin of the alias indeed reveals the singular force of Panfilov to be the artist behind these tracks. It's no wonder the A-sider is called 'Deep Dive', affirming our propensity for curious, almost forensic suspicion as to its true origins. A serene groove of just-intoned riffs and sizzlingly offbeat hits, this one's certainly a solid accompaniment for your next mescaline dabbling. Meanwhile, we're happy to award the B-sider with "banger of the year so far" - 'My Friend Ash' is an ecstatic mover, as deceivingly retro as it is beguiling, with stabbing counterpoints and wild toppers, as suitable for the club as it is would've been for some kind of 70s hoedown.

Review: While most of us will (sadly) not be going anywhere this holiday season, we can still get a musical taster of what it would be like Chilling at Christmas in the St Petersburg studio of modern funk apostles the Vicious Seeds. Their festive offering is a drowsy, deep, slow and laidback affair - the kind of jazzy instrumental soul and funk that would probably go well with a few mince pies and a needlessly large glass of port. A-side 'Meeting at Flea Market' is particularly lovely, with trombone and trumpet-heavy riffs and leisurely jazz guitar solos making themselves comfortable atop crunchy, deep (filled) funk drums. 'Shades of Pale', meanwhile, is even deeper, warmer and more bass-heavy, with some of the laziest and jazziest electric guitar solos we've ever heard. Delicious!