Caribbean disco, funk and dancefloor grooves from a range of sources – spacey grooves and tropical dancefloor sounds from Billie Cole, Tappa Zukie, El Cid, Casual T and many more! A number of tunes have more of a pronounced late 70s club soul groove with spacey touches, others have more pronounced Caribbean flavors, but it's all nicely grooving and geared to get the club floor shaking! Includes "Extra Carefully" by Billie Cole, "Freak" by Tappa Zukie, "Nassua's Disco" by Mucho Plus, "Sail On" by Wabine, "Soca Fusion" by Bobby Raven, "NY To Georgetown" by El Cid, "Hands Off" by Casual T, "Praise Jah" by Oluko Umo and more. (Global Grooves, Deep Funk) CD

... LP, Vinyl record album

El Michels return again to the Wu-Tang chambers – and the results this time might even be better than before! Wu-Tang forged their initial sound out of a love of offbeat samples and unusual funk – so it's only fitting that one of the hippest funk groups around strip the music right down to its roots – performing new live interpretations with their wickedly sinister groove – all at a level that makes the whole thing a slow funk masterpiece from start to finish! El Michels has always been one of the few real standouts in the deep funk scene – and it's records like this that keep us loving them so much. And even though the set features vocals from Lee Fields on two tracks, and Lady Wray on one more – the instrumental groove is what dominates and draws our ears, on tracks that include "Tears", "Sipped Up", "Shadow Boxing", "Iron Man", "4th Chamber", "Shaolin Brew", "Drums For Sale", "Verbal Intercourse", "Tearz", and "Wu Tang Clan Ain't Nuthin Ta F Wit". LP, Vinyl record album

Leon Michels has given us plenty of hip hop-inspired funk over the years, but this might be his first real hip hop project overall – a stunning set that mixes the live instrumentation of El Michels Affair with rhymes from Black Thought of The Roots – all at a level that might well set a new standard for both styles of music! The grooves are great – that subtle sense of drama that Michels always brings to the music – informed by old school action scores, but with the lean energy of a funky 45 – and although Black Thought has had live backing before, the El Michels approach here really seems to unlock something different in his vocals – maybe more power and drama than we might have guessed. Titles include "I'm Still Somehow", "Miracle", "Glorious Game", "That Girl", "The Weather", "I Would Never", "Grateful", and "Hollow Way". LP, Vinyl record album

Fusion Affair are a group who definitely take their name seriously – as the album's got a mix of keyboards and other electric instrumentation that really lives up to the legacy of jazz fusion – yet also has a way of coming across here with a nicely contemporary vibe! The group's inspirations are as much 80s as they are 70s – yet they've also got more of a 21st Century sense of rhythms, which means that some of the best cuts almost have a contemporary clubby sort of groove. Mathieu Guillot handles Fender Rhodes and a range of other keyboards on the set – in a lineup that also includes guitar, bass, drums, percussion, and additional keys – on the tracks "Venom", "Bounce", "Missing Cat", "Bougie Noire", "Dasha", and "Fruits Rouges". (Jazz, Deep Funk) LP, Vinyl record album

Excellent work from one of the funkiest steel bands around – a totally hip combo who just seem to be getting better and better with each new release! This time around, they've stepped up the beats even more than before – mixing their 70s funk and steel drum work with just a slight current from hip hop production – all of which almost makes you feel like Wu-Tang made a trip to the Caribbean, then came back with these tapes as a result! There's also some additionally cool touches in the horns – used with maybe some slight Ethio jazz inflections at points – alongside other elements that really help move the Bacao aesthetic forward in a mighty nice way. Titles include "Hotline Bling", "Grilled", "How We Do", "Hazy Memories", "In The Crosshairs", "The Champion's Walk", and a very cool take on the "Stranger Things Theme"! (Global Grooves, Deep Funk) CD

Excellent work from one of the funkiest steel bands around – a totally hip combo who just seem to be getting better and better with each new release! This time around, they've stepped up the beats even more than before – mixing their 70s funk and steel drum work with just a slight current from hip hop production – all of which almost makes you feel like Wu-Tang made a trip to the Caribbean, then came back with these tapes as a result! There's also some additionally cool touches in the horns – used with maybe some slight Ethio jazz inflections at points – alongside other elements that really help move the Bacao aesthetic forward in a mighty nice way. Titles include "Hotline Bling", "Grilled", "How We Do", "Hazy Memories", "In The Crosshairs", "The Champion's Walk", and a very cool take on the "Stranger Things Theme"! (Global Grooves, Deep Funk) LP, Vinyl record album

A pretty full-on group from the Virginia scene – one that comes on strong with a mix of funky drums, fuzzy guitar, bumping bass, and some great work on trumpet and keyboards! The groove here is almost a psychedelic take on jazz funk from years back – filtered into a very contemporary space, too – almost post-Medeski Martin & Wood, although nothing like that group at all – just in the kind of space that the new freedoms of recent years have opened up! In other words, these guys are pretty funky, but also not slavishly so – especially in any sort of retro mode – and although they're playing live here, there's an electric crackle to the whole proceedings that further ties their collaborative energy together. Titles include "Tunnelvision", "Moses", "Cairo", "Tomahawk", "Lysol", and "Forest 2.0". CD

The Faithful Brothers are an Israeli duo, but one who come to their debut after years of collecting Northern Soul 45s – decades of listening, learning, and absorbing – all of which really shows through in this well-done debut! The pair work with a very full lineup of musicians – horns, Hammond, and even a bit of vibes – used like you might hear on some late 60s Detroit indie soul single, with soaring sounds over the romping grooves – all of which really do a great job of elevating the vocals! Yet since the Faithful Brothers themselves just handle instruments, they're also not slavish to the singer – and the album's equally strong on the instrumental tip as it is on the vocal one. Titles include "So Low", "Downtown Uptown", "Night Man", "The Town I Live In", "Joy", "They Don't Know", "Let's Break The Curfew", and "Tell Me One More Time". LP, Vinyl record album

A really cool collection of cuts that were originally issued as 7" singles in recent years, but which work perfectly together here as a full length set that introduces the world to the deeply funky talents of Kevin Finigier! Kevin hails from Argentina, but has a deep love of American soul and funk, particularly the 60s variant that was big in the UK mod scene – and here, he serves up some wicked grooves that may well be some of the best contemporary work in this mode we've heard for years! The production is nice and gritty – really back at the level of the indie funky 45 scene from back in the day – and the set mixes instrumental numbers that have a wicked sharp explosion of sounds with some heavy vocal tracks that are equally nice. The Kevin Fingier Collective deliver the cuts "Addis Ababa", "Sunglasses After Dark", "El Basement", "Latin Dynamite", and "Cocktail De Medianoche" – and other tracks include "I Love Without A Love" by Jo Ann Hamilton, "Why Don't You Go Home" by Diane Ward, "Um Brilho Novo" by Josi Dias, "Kairo Bancou Moulu" by Abdoulaye Badiane, and "Don't Wanna Cry No More" by Gerri Granger. CD