Hip Hop / R&B Recommendations September 2017

Review: We've not been short on material from lion of Lyon Ethyene of late. Impressively, Essence of Adolescence is the Moonrise Hill Material co-founder's fifth solo EP in the past 18 months. As usual, the five-track set is packed with dusty, jazz-flecked samples, sumptuously soulful musicality, and the kind of slinky, sun-kissed grooves that seem to shimmy from the speakers in a haze of high-grade smoke. Along the way, he fuses deep house with starry jazz-funk ("Time Flies Baby"), sultry modern soul (impeccable, vocal-laden loop jam "Cherish The Day") and string-drenched Philadelphia disco (bouncy shuffler "A Common Soul"). Typically, he's also included a bonus instrumental hip-hop workout ("E-Fuel Ov'me").

Review: It's landed! Two highly iconic and tricky-to-trace funk breaks from the 70s get the treatment from the mysterious new US series B Boy Funk Breaks. Blackrock's psychedelically twinged "Yeah Yeah" gets a slight shuffle and refocus while retaining the all the instrumental drama and swashbuckling drop that's led with JB-level bandleadership while the edit of Richard's People take us straight to church, front row centre. Again laced with another clean and killer break, this is powermove gold. Limited to 300 copies.

Review: What a trip it's been for The Allergies; rolling from one killer album to the next, funk is flying from their HQ at a rate of knots. Here are two fine examples from their last LP Push On, both featuring their long-time friend and MC from Andy Cooper. Best known for his witty wordplay and character on Ugly Duckling records, here Andy gets to show off both sides to his expansive flow; "Main Event" is a chubby disco groove laced with mountains of funk, creating space for Andy's laidback-but-hypey charm. In perfect contrast "Buzzsaw" is a much sweatier funk jam allowing Cooper to get rapid and tongue-twisty in a way that only he knows how. Keep on pushing...