MURO レコード& CD

Review: Japanese heavyweights HHV continue their ongoing trawl through the back catalogue of long-serving hip-hop producer, DJ, record collector and self-styled King of Diggin', Muro. Here they present the second part of the dusty-fingered hero's turn-of-the-millennium Pan Rhythm series of 12" singles, this time presenting it on a tidy seven inch single. 'Hip-Hop Band' is a weighty, floor friendly, horn-heavy re-make of the Stetsasonic song of the same name, with local mic man Boo delivering tweaked versions of the U.S crew's verses in his native Japanese. While jazzy, the bombastic backing track - which can be heard in full on the flipside instrumental version - is forthright and club-ready, making the single a must-have for working hip-hop DJs and those who love the more up-tempo end of the rap spectrum.

Review: Not got the dusty fingers to match DJ Muro? That's okay as the Japanese selector, editor and crate digger has started this new series of 7" shaped accompaniments to his much loved I love 45s mix CD series that lifts out some of the rarities featured on them. As you'd expect these won't hang around for long, and rightly so when Muro's seen fit to include some personal tweaks of some real funk bombs like the A Side uptempo boogaloo crusher "Getting T'Gether Man" from The Classitors. Hit the flip for a more head nob on "Food Stamp" which will appeal to the breakers out there, whilst "Grazin In The Grass" does bugged out JBs funk to the extreme.