“Unreleased Jai Paul Beats. Have a quick listen as gonna b taken down by our manager in the morning.” – Two Inch Punch. And, modern internet folklore continues with this re-surfacing of a snippet Jai had on his MySpace a few years back. Ahead of his time even then, it features a familiar Feist inspiration source more recently popularised in 2010 by James Blake. Here it’s organic, punching Dilla’esque funk and hypnotic alarms all lightly dusted and taking you up, up, into the clouds. One can only imagine where this goes past the cruel 53 second cut-off. With ‘Jasmine’ already being a favourite of the year, how much longer the wait for new material Mr. Paul? Obsessed. Repeat x 100,000.
This is Dorian Concept‘s rework of Austrian producer Cid Rim’s ’Draw’, a track taken from his excellent debut Micro Album. Where Cid Rim’s ultra slick, yet slightly more reserved original takes its time, Dorian Concept’s ode is a skittish, jittering, electro funk inspired re-fix. Steadily building to a crescendo of crushed drums and spiralling vocal samples. Brash and hasty in it’s deliver, it gets to the point and insists on raising the stakes even further with a bout of surging keyboard riffs.
If you haven’t already go get Cid Rim’s excellent Micro Album which is available now on Lucky Me, who continue to add to their already impressive roster.
Channeling the decadence of 70′s disco and 80′s boogie, New York natives Body Language reveal their latest video for single ‘Falling Out’, taken off their 2011 released Social Studies EP. Nitrate popper synths, a tropical rollerskating groove and a fierce hook create the perfect sweaty night soundtrack for all those wanting to hang loose, boogaloo or robot. The video was shot, naturally, in New York City of course.
Formed in an obscure region of Sweden called Korpilombolo, Goat is a band of musicians focused on channelling their love for Afro-beat, Psych-Funk, Folk and Disco into a sound entirely their own. Their hometown has long been shrouded in tales of voodoo worship and practices of the dark arts, something that is not ignored in their music. ‘Let It Bleed’ is the first single taken off their upcoming World Music debut (August 20th), it’s video was released a few weeks back but from it you can quickly gauge their philosophy.
Eglo Records’ Fatima and Funkineven reunite once again, this time for a joint EP titled Phoneline. The 4-track release includes ’90′s’, a soulful track which blends Funkineven’s love for analogue and electronic experimentation with Fatima’s unmistakably coloured vocals; Together creating a genuinely dope sound that pays homage to influencers of the past while not giving in to mundane clichés. Low quality audio radio rip for now…
If one album this year (thus far) truly deserves the Funk stamp of approval, it has to be Kindness‘ debut World, You Need a Change of Mind. The way Adam Bainbridge successfully bridged the gaps of his own love for R&B, Funk, Soul and Go-Go across the songs on that album continues to bug me out. Not to mention – he backs it up with an electrifying and bewildering live show. Now though, comes the video for his single ‘That’s Alright’ – performed here by Trouble Funk, the group whose music was sampled to create Kindness’ version.
On speaking of the song, Kindness said: ‘That’s Alright’ is almost entirely based upon samples from the Trouble Funk song ‘Still Smokin’… Go-go has been on my radar since Rich Harrison first started putting out incredible songs with a go-go influence. As a DC area native, Harrison knew well the urgency and vitality of go-go, and its unswervable effect on an audience. Hence his use of go-go breaks in ‘Crazy in Love’ by Beyonce, ‘One Thing’ by Amerie and ‘Take this Ring’ by Toni Braxton… In clearing a sample for use in a song, you have to send a copy to the original writers for approval and publishing clearance. So I knew that Trouble Funk ought to have heard the song already. For that reason I thought we might try and take things a step further. Would the band perhaps be interested in performing the new version of their song for the video? And could they find me something to do?”
Taken off his critically acclaimed debut album World, You Need a Change of Mind, Kindness releases ‘That’s Alright’ on September 3rd. Introduced by a sex-soaked saxophone the track quickly evolves into a 80′s explosion of Funk and dirty Pop. His guitar licks and that harmonised chorus is unquestionably Kindness’ nod to his Holy Purpleness. Fonky.
If you get the chance to see this man live – don’t miss it. His stage shows are wild. He’ll be playing some live shows next month, peep the dates after the jump.
Not much is known about DIANA other than there from some part of Canada. But what I think we can tell from ‘Born Again’ is that they probably have quite a soft spot for 80′s pop culture as evidenced in those chunky electro bass riff’s, soft drums, sax solo’s and that big power ballad chorus. And then there are those ghostly vocals which give everything a nice eerie “Lynchian“ atmosphere. I like it.
Head to their soundcloud and listen to their achingly cool ‘Perpetual Surrender’ too.
Thick drum pads and gluttonous bass licks all up on this new beauty that the Parisian, Onra has made for Skullcandy’s latest series – Supreme Sound From…
This track and the rest will be released on limited edition 12″ vinyl, which conveniently for the rest of the world will only be sold in Paris. If you don’t manage to get your hands on an import, stream it below via the beloved Soundcloud.
Ahead of her headline performance at the Lovebox festival next week, diva Grace Jones has provided a previously unheard remix of ‘Williams Blood’ – a single taken off her critically acclaimed, ’08 album Hurricane. Belgian production duo Aeroplane work their Electronic future-Disco around Jones’ iconic voice and in doing so provide us with an excellent pre-festival treat. Listen/download below.
We’ll be at Lovebox across the 3 days this weekend – so watch out for some cool stuff across twitter, facebook, tumblr and of course right here.
You can still buy tickets to see the likes of Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Lana Del Rey, Disclosure, Kelis, Emeli Sande, Friendly Fires and more - here.
