Juno Recommends Funk / Reissues October 2021

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Here's something special from the rapidly swelling Adeen label. Always bringing something a little different to the house and disco edit game, this time they've reached out to the legendary Chez Damier to team up with label boss Camille and Italian producer Nico Lahs in assembling a compilation of on point edits that will have any keen digger in a frenzy. Across two slabs of wax we get respectfully touched up versions spanning a range of styles. There's powerful singalong soul stirrers like Janice McClain's 'Giving My Love', nasty low down groovers like Love Cild's Afro Cuban Blues Band's 'SpanDisco', and lots more besides. If you need some deep cover heaters with girth in all the right places, look no further.

Review: 'Good Life' remains an enduring soul classic that unites people of all ages on the dance floor. Well, now you can also enjoy it as reinterpreted by the Brassroots band, made up of leader and trombone man Jerome Harper with various other brass men alongside him. They keep the original's lead hook, which becomes a big, bold, tooting celebration up top while the fat bottom bass drives it along below. On the flip is the big, churning rhythm and more heft bass and bass work of 'Try Again.'

Review: Jason Gray of Polyrythmics fame was the engineer on this tune from the Devon Lamar Organ Trio. It is the last one from the session to be pressed to limited edition - and pink - 45rpm and comes in two parts. 'Jimmy's Groove (part 1)' is a super funky jam, with brilliant organ work as you would expect, and tight stick work that rides up and down and is backed by funky and knotted bass. There is a playful and psyched-out 60s feel that carries over to the flipside and 'Jimmy's Groove (part 2).' Here there are more breakout organ solos and the grooves just keep on rolling.

Review: After spending too long apart due to Covid-19 restrictions, Melbourne-based trio Cookin' on 3 Burners finally managed to get back together to work on some new heaters. The hard-hitting Hammond Organ lovers come correct again from the off with the slick old-school boom-bap hip hop stylings of 'The World Is Cold,' but with plenty of added funky breaks. Male and female vocals go back and forth over the beat and layer in the soul. On the flip, the laidback 'Ms Fat Booty' is a dreamy and late-night number for lovers.

Review: Shaka Loves You and you will love Shaka once you're getting deep down on the dance floor to these characterful funk cuts on the Bomb Strikes label. The a-side 'Boogie' features Fullee Love delivering some nice rhymes over a picky beat with funky riffs and raw drum work. It's got some big horn action and then on the flip side comes 'Get Down,' which is a big funk instrumental with hip-swinging claps. There are plenty of soaring horns to get those hands in the air and this one is well versed in the classic sound while also adding something fresh.

Review: Big Crown is one of our favourite labels here at HQ. The funk and soul they serve up is perfectly aged yet never overly nostalgic and this new one is another case it point. It's the latest from the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band and features two singles take from their latest and greatest album Expansions which landed back in June. As always they bring their own unique steel drum sounds and tropical Caribbean vibes to funk music. 'Raise It Up' is a deep cut joint with big horns and rippling steel drums puddles while 'Space' is a more lumpy groove with the drums more front and centre.

Review: In recent years, Soopasoul has spent much of his time delivering funk-fuelled mash-ups and reworks under the Soopastole Edits alias. Here he returns to his roots, offering a pair of funk-fuelled cut-and-paste outings that should delight B-boys and B-girls the world over. The real killer is A-side 'A Wild Mad Beat', a hard funking affair in which a relentless bassline and crunchy, JB's style funk breaks are peppered with squally sax lines, hard-wired guitar licks, dreamy chords and jazzy flourishes. The producer makes use of his regular backing band on flipside 'Swing Down', an up-tempo funk-soul number marked out by delightful female lead vocals, punchy sax sounds and an undeniably restless groove.

Review: Reflex was a band assembled in the 1980s by drummer David Humphrey from bands including Public Image Ltd. and they put pout their biggest hit 'Funny Situation' privately via Star Records in 1981. Paint A Picture now serve up a first ever fully remastered and licensed reissue of the superb 7". An original will cost you upwards of L200 if you can find it so this is welcome indeed. The record includes an insert with some content on the release, which was made in the same studio and engineered by the same man as the classic Britfunk anthem 'Southern Freeze.' It is similarly tight and funky and will make any floor go off.

Review: Night Owls know exactly how to nail a signature Jamaican sound that comes laden with classic funk and soul. They do that again on this super 7" which lands at the tail end of summer but is sure to be bringing plenty of warmth into your life for months to come. First up they cover War's classic tune 'Me and Baby Brother' with blue-eyed soul singer Kevin Sandbloom. Add in guitar player Dan Ubick's lush licks and you have a real gem. Flip it over for the more slow, fat-bottomed and dubby swagger of The Average White Band's 'School Boy Crush' which has been renamed 'School Girl Crush.' The vocal is red hot, and the groove to die for.

Review: The Atlanta based B Boy Breaks series continues with another drop of serious cuts to get beat jugglers, sample diggers and just straight up funk lovers going hog wild over the lashings of drum breaks galore. First up on the A side there's some widescreen, expansive beatdowns taking place with the massive "Show Me The Funk Breaks" - a fela esque sax screaching ,hammond organ swirling classic you already know from the many times it's been lifted for its treasured sonic ingredients. "Harder Breaks" on the flip is another monumental jam, presented here in instrumental form most recently used for the theme tune of a UK TV show . The evergreen groove is just crying out for someone with the skills to drop some serious turntablism all over this one.

Review: The JalapeNo label never fails to serve up the sort of hot and spicy funk sounds that electrify dance floors. It is UK beatmakers The Allergies who take care of this one with fire-in-the-hole future classics that pack powerful punches with their famous signature sound. First up is the vintage funk of 'Love Somebody' with its big and beefy breaks and vintage sounds. On the flipside is 'Promised Land' which is the title track from the forthcoming album. It's a big and bulky breakbeat smasher that will get the feet tapping and the fists pumping.

Review: Featuring members of Timmion's latest house band, Cold Diamond & Mink, but pre-dating the foundation of that combo by many years, The Soul Investigators are Finland's longest-serving soul band of note. The collective has been going since the mid 1990s and over the years has worked with all manner of neo-soul artists. Here they join forces with an old pal, eccentric lounge-jazz veteran Jimi Tenor, for two laidback soul instrumentals. This time round, there's no singing from Tenor; instead, he delivers a couple of atmospheric, elongated flute solos. You'll find his distinctive work on both the atmospheric, vibraphone-sporting 'Vulture's Prayer', and 'Bad Vibrations', a funk-tinged slab of horizontal instrumental soul that's as breezy as an autumnal morning in Helsinki.

Review: Argentinian producer Kevin Fingier has decided to launch a new series of seven-inch singles on his Acid Jazz Records offshoot, Fingier Records. Known as World Got Soul, the series begins via FIngier's first collaborations with Brazilian jazz singer Josi Dias. She's in fine form on A-side 'Um Brilho Novo', a superb slab of jazz-tinged Brazilian soul rich in energetic funk breaks, mazy vibraphone and flute solos, heavy bass and razor-sharp guitar licks. Even more energetic and dancefloor-ready is flipside 'Rua Nova Barao', a fine fusion of South American dancefloor jazz, funk breaks and sweaty samba rhythms. Like the A-side, it sounds like a guaranteed floor-filler.

Review: Following fine, party-starting contributions from Badboe, Tom Showtime, Prosper, Gramophone Soul and Second Hand Audio, Breakbeat Paradise has handed a Toxic Funk debut to Greek scene stalwarts Funkin' Basstards. The pair's brand of energy-packed, fattened-up funk is a perfect fit for the series. They deliver two reworks, both of which are beefed-up, floor-ready takes on old funk and soul tunes. On the A-side you'll find the rolling, up-tempo hedonism of 'Fire' - all bustling breaks, diva vocals, rising horns and hard guitars - while the flip boasts 'Reasons', a tidy, head-nodding take on what sounds like a twangy, Southern Soul gem from the 1960s. Their take combines elements of their source material as well as a few brand-new samples, cuts and musical elements.

Review: Despite a live performance career stretching back to the early 2000s, American deep funk and soul combo The Grease Traps have yet to release a debut album. That will change later this month when they finally unleash their first full-length excursion, Solid Ground. First though they've treated us to this teaser single featuring two of the album's many highlights. A-side 'Bird of Paradise' is the one for dancefloor plays: an unashamedly heavy funk outing laden with rasping, James Brown style vocals, punchy horns, flanged guitar licks, Hammond B3 organ licks and some seriously crunchy, snare-heavy drum-breaks. Over on side B, 'More and More (and More)' is described by the label as 'low rider soul'; in reality, it's a dewy-eyed, slightly psychedelic, slow-motion excursion that's as loved-up as they come.

Review: Although operative in the early 1980s, the quality of B & The Family's boogie-era soul recordings only became evident five years ago when the Super Disco Edits label unearthed and issued a couple of their previously unreleased recordings. These two never-before-released jams come from the same period. A-side 'Count on Me' is simply superb: a squelchy and soulful electrofunk number of the kind that were frequently released in the early '80s by the Solar System and Salsoul labels. Flipside 'Magic' is a little fuzzier and hazier - in part because it was probably transferred from a partially damaged tape - but no less impressive, delivering an attractive blend of dewy-eyed male lead vocals, elastic slap bass, colourful synthesizer sounds and dreamy chords.

Review: Canadian label Love Touch is doing a fine job of assuring itself in the world of modern boogie and funk. It has a couple of super sweet 45rpms out this month and this is one of them from MIA. Not that MIA, of course, but a vocalist who is fast becoming almost as good. Born Honey Deux and known as The Sweetest Lady of Boogie she impressed us with her earlier 7" on Mango Hill and this relase now offers two remixes with XL Middleton beefing up the drums firstly. It's a real gore together early dance floors going and on the flip the Quiet Storm mix then strips things back to a more hazy and dreamy late night mood.

Review: Given that Wild Cherry's 'Play That Funky Music' and Average White Band's 'Pick Up The Pieces' are both amongst the most anthemic disco-era funk cuts around, many may see these new remixes from Marco Fratty as being a bit unnecessary. Yet while neither track needed tampering with, the Italian producer has done a terrific job in updating them. His full vocal versions of both tracks make great use of the original instrumentation and vocals, effectively extending them - re-edit style - while adding marginally tougher new beats that never overwhelm the mix. Even better though are the two dub mixes, which use familiar sonic tropes - delay-laden vocal snippets, Refkex style instrumental builds and so on - to help turn both tracks into 21st century dub disco epics. A surprise triumph!

Review: American rock band Atilla and The Huns hail from Wisconsin and formed in 1964. The group consists of drummer Rich Legault, bassist Denny Lewan and singer/guitarist Mike Peace as well as rhythm guitarist Ben Wiesneiwski and they became a big hit on the local circuit. They put out only three two trackers between 1965 and 1969 and this newly assembled 7" plucks one track each from two of the now hard to find and pricey originals. 1967's 'Hurry Back' is a rolling funk number with bulky drums and twanging riffs that oozes 60s cool. 1969's 'Here's Where I Get Off' is a more sentimental roller with slightly deeper grooves and more lovestruck lyrics. Both will do well with Northern Soul lovers.