Juno Recommends Funky House: Best of 2022

Review: There's a fair chance you'll already have heard "Cola", experienced production duo Camelphat's collaboration with vocalist Elderbrook. The original version, with its rumbling bass, atmospheric builds, subtle bassline house influence and "she sips the Coca-Cola" refrain, has become something of an anthem since first appearing on digital download earlier in the year. For this first vinyl release, Defected has packaged the now-familiar original mix with a trio of reworks. The most impressive of these comes from German veteran Mousse T. He brilliantly re-casts the track as a bumpin' chunk of celebratory disco-house complete with thrilling piano riffs and an elastic bassline.

Review: You might think that you could cop a copy of New Order's seminal hit 'Blue Monday' fairly easily and cheaply given its ubiquity over the years. But no, copies in good condition still fetch around 50 quid, so this remastered reissue is well worth a cop. The single's iconic bassline and twitchy synth modulations very much soundtrack a generation, if not an entire youth revolution, but still enliven any dance floor many years later. What's more, the de-humanised vocals will always provide real singalong joy. On the flip is a 'The Beach', which is drenched in echo and reverb and general sonic filth.

Review: After hitting on something of a formula with 'Only Human', this A-side banger is further proof that Four Tet is onto a rich vein of side hustle action with his KH alter ego. 'Looking At Your Pager' is a cheeky slice of '90s throwback-ism in jackin' house form, and in a heuristically Hebden-esque style, makes deft use of the hilariously autotuned opening verse heard in 3LW's girl band hit, 'No More'. It's a very clever tune; just as no-one uses pagers anymore, nor do people use the kind of dubstep wobbles heard underneath the track's clacking groove... Mr. KH makes them cool again!

Review: Oliver Dollar sure knows how to make dance floor bait. His rough edged and lo-fi house is infused with plenty of funk, soul and disco cues, as well as plenty of well found samples. He is a perfect mix for Defected and here link with Jimi Jules for the easy to love and heart felt grooves of "Pushing On." As well as a dub, Jesse Rose serves up a 'live From The Villa' remix that has big, bouncy kicks and hard edge claps softened by a big diva vocal. Tchami then closes out with the most peak time and pumping of the lot.

Review: Dave Lee's Z Records digs deep here to come up with a brilliant EP that reissues an original single from 1980s afro-beat outfit Kabbala. The Ghanain brothers of Michael and Isaac Osapanin formed in London and made music from 1982 to 1987. 'Ashewo Ara' is one of their standout tunes from early on and it blends Afro drums with jazz and funk to make for real dance floor heat. An A Capella is included next to edits from Dave Lee and Doug Gomez. It all adds up to a red hot package.

Review: First released way back in 1994, Barbara Tucker's 'Beautiful People' is arguably one of the greatest soulful house records ever made. Instantly recognisable thanks to its gospel-influenced chorus and "deep, down inside" vocal refrain, it remains capable of rocking any peak-time dancefloor. This white vinyl reissue boasts the best of the 1994 mixes. On side A you get the full vocal 'Underground Network Mix' and the blissful, organ-rich, ultra-melodic 'Beautiful Reprise' instrumental. Over on the flip there's a chance to cop Little Louie Vega and Kenny Dope's bouncy, piano-heavy club mix and the peerless, sub-heavy, melody-rich Mood II Swing Dub.

Review: Toronto veteran Jason Hodges is back with a new one this week on local label Purveyor Underground Limited, following up a great inaugural release by homeboy Demuir. The result is the deep, down and dirty boompty business of 'Our World' featuring some cool vocal work atop by William Alexander. Demuir's Playboi edit up next retains all the jazzy, dusty and deep qualities of the original, and will mix well with all your old Classic or Robsoul records. Over on the flip, there's some hypnotic DJ Sneak style disco loops on 'He's Whining Again' followed by the thumping funky house banger 'Find A Way' (part 1).

Review: Broken beat innovator Dego and The 2000Black Family join forces for this latest 12" on Neroli Italy and it is a classy affair, as you would expect. 'Make The Right Move' opes in joyous fashion with gorgeously sunny synths and flesh bass over loose limed drums.The vocal harmonies are heart melting and the whole thing makes an indelible impact. After the instrumental version comes the 'The Stakeout,' a flute led and upbeat stepper with more lush Rhodes chords and a hint of MPB. Last fo all is the playfully sleazy and down low funk burner 'Jam Number Six.'

Review: Although he made his name beefing up disco and boogie tunes, Casual Connection has used his Edits imprint - a spin-off from his clothing brand of the same name - to showcase tasty reworks of hip-hop, R&B and New Jack Swing jams. He's at it again on this fourth "45" in the series. A-side, 'Juicy Tells Him' is particularly potent, with the Aussie rework king cannily combining a much-loved rap acapella with punchy electronic beats, sturdy electronic bass and the kind of Korg M-1 organ riff more often associated with bassline or '90s U.S garage jams. He opts for an even heavier, sleazier, and dirtier sound on 'Tasty Work', a next-level re-imaging of a Missy Elliot classic that's as on-point and club-ready as they come.

Review: Michele Lamacchia has released a hell of a lot of music over the last few years, much of it inspired by 1990s Italian house. His Gourment De Funk project includes occasional nods in that direction but is far more inspired by bumpin' disco house and chunky 1990s US deep house. It's fitting then that Roy Davis Jnr makes an appearance on Lamacchia's latest EP, first providing spoken word vocals on 'A Love Supreme' before reworking the even more lively, sax-laced peak-time wonder that is 'The Way You Move'. Davis Jnr's 'Chicago Boogie' tweak of that track is funkier, more bass-heavy and could well be the highlight of a genuinely excellent EP (though the early St Germain style jazz-house of 'Never Lost (GDF Early Morning Dub)' pushes it close).

Review: Cruise Music Vinyl Jams Volume 7 is here so let's start with the Cruise Music crew, with their funky, uplifting collaboration, Keep On Groovin, a must-have track for your summer dancefloors.
Next up is one of Rimini's finest, Corrado Alunni, with his heavy disco groover Dance Baby Dance.
On the flip side we have one of our best artists SAMO and his huge track Strangers, while on B2 we have Makito and one of his best releases Bustin Loose.

Review: Big name pile up alert! In the final stages of his career, the late Frankie Knuckles and fellow Chicago producer Ricky Sinz teamed up for this funky house outing that has classic written all over it . From the moment it's R&B-slanted vocal starts to wind you around it's little finger and the pumping, stripped down 80's groove kicks into life. Orlando Voorn delves even further back for inspiration on his remix, shimmering in disco strings, before Ben Sims carves out two harder-edged mixes that nestle neatly on the house/divide, both playing a single bass note off against restless rhythms.

Review: The idea behind the Snatch Classics series, which is finally making its vinyl debut following a few tester releases digitally, is deliciously simple. It sees label founder Riva Starr and friends deliver fresh interpretations of classic cuts. On side A you'll find a fresh take on Bob Sinclar's "French touch" filter disco anthem 'I Feel For You' by Star B - AKA Starr and UK techno stalwart Mark Broom. Their version is chunky, energetic, loopy and bass-heavy, re-framing the cut as a tech-funk workout with added string-laden disco chops. Over on the reverse, Starr re-edits and pimps up Groove Armada's 'Superstylin', making it even more sub-heavy, dubbed-out and boisterous (albeit in a rather classy way, we think). Tasty tweaks of classic cuts: what's not to like?

Review: Originally dropped mid-summer as a digital release, the quality on this remix package from The Sunburst Band was just too good to keep off wax. First up, bandleader Dave Lee himself steps up with a 'Jazz Funk Renaissance' version of 'Listen Love' which frames Wayne Hernandez's stirring vocal turn with molten Rhodes and wah-wah guitars aplenty. Then the Louie Vega-Josh Milan dream team come correct with two spellbinding versions that speak to their prowess in the field of live, deeply rooted house music. For good measure, Lee rounds things off on the B2 with a 'Flute Reboot' for those who just want to zone in on the groove.

Review: Whether she likes it or not, Sophie Lloyd will always be known for the unfeasibly uplifting gospel disco-meets-gospel-house anthem 'Calling Out'. That was released five years ago and ever since, she's struggled to embrace it's shadow. With 'Angels By My Side', Lloyd seems to have embraced this, delivering another fine gospel-powered number that inhabits a similar sonic space while being different enough to avoid accusations of treading water. It's genuinely good, too, with Pauline Taylor delivering superb lead vocals over a hybrid gospel disco/stomping gospel sound hybrid full of Hammond organ licks, booming bass guitar, piano house riffs and stirring orchestration. In other words, it's another anthem in waiting.

Review: Gilberto Gil and Ernie Watt's classic jazz dancer 'Gondwana' gets a big remake here for the main man OPOLOPO. He offers a tweak that brings broken beat funk, with his jazz-fusion keys dancing over the shuffling drums and bass and mad pianos brings the vibes. The vocals are the icing on the cake for this class South American party starter. On the flip he turns his sights to Kevin Moore's 'Speak Your Mind' which is a summery and soulful disco heater with a squelchy boogie bassline that takes off and ensures the dance floor will do the same.

Review: 'Alive 2007' is known as one of the most influential live albums ever, and this new reissue via Daft Punk's parent label Daft Life cements that influence. Performed at the French venue Bercy, we feel much harder, better, faster and stronger as we listen eagerly to the the pair's signature talkboxes, samples and hooks, this time drenched in crowd jeers and natural reverb. In this instance, Daft Punk manipulated their established material, transposing and deconstructing the structures of their studio tracks and paving the way for the future of live electronic music performance.

Review: We find it hard to believe it's taken Daft Punk all these years to compile all their favourite remixes of 'Homework' onto a single album, but they've finally done it. This up-and-comer remix double album compiles myriad interpretations of three of the helmed robo-crusaders' most iconic tunes - Around The World, Revolution 909 and Burnin', specifically - from artists as unexpected as DJ Sneak, I:Cube and Masters At Work. Don't miss this one, as it's set to be a raucous spinal-scratchy affair.

Review: If Electribal Soul sounds deliciously vintage, there's a good reason for that. An exemplary exploration of glassy-eyed synth-pop and electro, deep house and street soul marked out by tactile electronic motifs, warm basslines and Billie Ray Martin's superb vocals, the album was mostly recorded in 1991 and '92 at a time when relationships in the group were beginning to fray. Now tidied up and released by Martin three decades after it was shelved, Electribal Soul has the feel of a genuine lost classic - a set that would have received rave reviews at the time had it appeared in late 1992 as originally intended. A genuine triumph that's as loved-up and saucer-eyed as a sweaty hug at sunrise on an Ibizan beach.

Review: If there was ever a duo with the bombast and flair to pull off the 18-minute electro-rock-opera, it's surely Justice. Gaspard Auge and Xavier de Rosnay created Planisphere in the wake of conquering the world with their debut album Cross, initially for use on the catwalk but subsequently shared on their MySpace. Of course such releases now attain a kind of cult mythos, and Planisphere is no exception. In the Ed Banger era of dirty French touch, this is a fans dream come true - the gnarly monster that keeps on giving, now pressed up on a single side of vinyl for continuous listening, with a classy etching on the reverse.

Review: "Dream, dream on... your dream will come alive," goes the mantra of 'Dreams', the melancholic 4-chord lead single by eurodance supergroup 2 Brothers On The 4th Floor. We should hope so too. Or, at least, we should hope your dream to own this gold-coloured, 180g audiophile gatefold repress of their 'Very Best Of' album should come true. Forming in 1990 when brothers Martin and Bobby Boer started making bedroom pop in their parent's flat on the 4th floor of their apartment block, this band-cum-techno act have never shied from the lilting emotions of disparate genres, from indie folk to happy hardcore. Assisted by rapper Da Smooth Baron MC and singer Peggy "The Duchess", this album compiles almost every 'hit' from this ambitious studio project's lengthy career, from the beachside naff-trance of 'Never Alone' to the future-dystopian vocoder tones of 'Living In Cyberspace'. Cheese fanatics will love this one.