image note       view larger image

Empire Strikes Back

$18.99 ... LP (€13.99 || £11.98 || ¥1781) (approx.)

A sweet funky project from Bruno "Patchworks" Hovart – a set that's filled with lots of 70s funk elements, but which keeps up the groove we've come to love in all of his previous Patchworks projects! There's a great blend here between live funk instrumentation and dancefloor direction – almost a return to the drenched-in-classics sounds we first came to love in the French scene over a decade ago, which have been lost in recent years by some of the too-trashy artists out there – only to be reclaimed wonderfully by Bruno in a record like this! The grooves run a gamut that includes spiritual jazz, funky club, and a bit of boogie – but all done with a style that's lean enough to be dubbed deep funk at some moments too – a much wider palette of sounds than you'd get from other funky artists working today – but handled beautifully by Hovart, with a really deep understanding of a wide range of music from years back. Vocals are by Noel McKoy, Janice & Ange, and Juan Rozoff – and titles include great versions of "Celestial Blues" and "You've Got To Have Freedom", both quite different than the originals – plus the cuts "Boogie", "Now", "We Stand At The Back Of The Bus", "I Used to Spend My Time", and "No One Gonna Stop Us Now".  © 1996-2013, Dusty Groove, Inc.