Juno Recommends Funk / Rare Groove / Reissues : November 2022

Review: In 2002, New York producer Ursula 1000 released his groundbreaking, genre-busting album Kinda' Kinky, meshing groovy retro sampladelic licks with modern breaks and beats. For its 20th anniversary this year, Ursula revisits the 60's swinging London mod shaking title track with his own 2022 redux. UK breakbeat master A.Skillz remixes the flipside into a relentless, giggling funky disco monster! The cover design is by world renowned space-age bachelor pad artist Shag.

Review: DJ Soopasoul knows how to kick any dance floor into action. He always brings the party with his masterful edits and cut-and-paste jobs and now he's back on his own label with a couple more such bombs. This one is essentially one long jam that he splits up into two tunes. 'Good Edits (part 1)' pairs big lush brings with a funky bassline and melodic refrain we all know and love. The vocals come to take things up yet another level. On the flipside, the groove builds, the vocal does even more work and the whole thing is irresistibly good fun.

Review: This new hand-numbered 7" from Breaks & Beats is a sample hunter's delight. Two timeless funk gems with super deep vibes and lush vocals that have been pillaged by hip-hop and R&B artists many times over the years. On the a-side is a special extended Breaks Special edition edit of The Headhunters - 'God Make Me Funky' with its super tight drumming, languid bass funk and epic sense of late-night cool. On the reverse is another special extended Breaks Special edition edit, this time of The Counts's playful and funk gem 'Motor City' with its big fills and steamy sax lines.

Review: Local Sugar Diggers features re-edits & reworks of old and rare records from Scru's friends collections.
The series starts with two perfect tunes "Mostly Sunny" a mash-up of some German & Japanese 80's funk, and "Opyat' 25" an obscure Japanese jam spiced with some classic Roland 303 acid sounds.

Review: 7th Wonder - "Daisy Lady" is such a special and in-demand tune that no matter how many times it gets reissued it always sells out. This latest pressing on Breaks & Beats is a hand-numbered and limited edition 7" that is backed with Blackbusters's 'Old Man'. It's a cosmic funk workout with some great synth magic drawn out and weaved into funky breaks with all the bells and whistles (literally.) But really that 7th Wonder jam is the one here with its pumping drums and lavish horn sections all making for a colourful and vibrant wedge of irresistible funk.

Review: Smoove is one half of the legendary edit duo Smoove and Turell from Northern England. He goes it alone here on the fourth volume of his Multitack Reworks series with two slices of the kind of grooves that we know and love and him for. A-side 'Live' and flip track 'Egypt' are both prime cuts of timeless funk with driving drum breaks and plenty of catchy and hooky melodic motifs. These limited edition, hand-stamped white label 12"s always do damage on the dancefloor so are well worth picking up.

Review: Wagram offers up a mega-rare groove compilation, and a one-way ticket to France from the late 60s to the early 80s. Spanning movie soundtrack cuts to releases that have never seen the light of day, you're not likely to know many of the names on this one, thanks to its super-niche focus. Nevertheless, what links funk and France is fromage, so they go together like cheese in a rind. Worth the grind!

Review: REPRESS ALERT!: Pinky Perzelle, aka Sonny Rooney's debut 'No Games' featuring Eda Eren, is a true labour of love and an ode to his total passion and dedication to multi instrumental record creation without compromise. Almost every instrument was recorded and played by Perzelle at his home studio. Featuring the utterly unique, impassioned and reassuring vocals of British-Turkish artist, Eda Eren, and additional drums from world renowned Malcolm Catto (The Heliocentrics). The lead track is a timeless, heartfelt, funk-ladened portal into a world reminiscent of a cinematic movie scene or an undiscovered gem from another era all-together. The hypnotic 'Remix' from Velvet Season & The Hearts Of Gold aka Gerry Rooney & Joel Martin, introduces subtle electronica and dubbed out instrumentation. A true lesson in after hours, left-field Balearica. Pinky's own 'Electronic Mix' references early house music and broken-beat electronic drums. Showing yet another side of Perzelle's approach to music making.

Review: Australian cutmaster DJ Bacon is on a relentless mission to bring you mash-ups, edits and flips of all shapes and sizes, and he's at it once again on his self-titled label with a reissue of his deadly Sweatin' On The Dancefloor 7". Cutting up all manner of classic funk, disco rap and more besides, the trainspotters out there could have a lot of fun dissecting every sample and cut that flicks in and out of the mix on both these tracks, but that turntable trickery doesn't come at the expense of the groove. These tracks will absolutely turn a party out given half a chance, and given how much the first pressing fetches, you won't want to delay on nabbing this one while it's around.

Review: When David Said dons his shades to become Dabeull, the funk isn't far away. On this debut album he's working alongside acclaimed French pianist Sofiane Pamart to create something more than a mere 80s boogie throwback. Loving Life is a deeply expressive work which uses the romanticism of Moog basslines and smouldering vocal turns from the likes of Kunta and Holybrune to round out an atmospheric, after hours listening experience. It's melancholic but oh so warm on the ears, with Pamart's playing steering a mature and nuanced melodic progression you simply don't hear in many electro-funk-styled projects these days.

Review: Noel McGhie is an accomplished jazz drummer who has played with Gil Evans amongst others, and back in 1975 he recorded what many consider his grand opus. McGhie's Space Spies were Georges-Edouard Nouel, Itaru Oki, Joao Jorge and Louis Xavier, and between them they whipped up a heady brew of soul jazz and funk on this sizzling record. McGhie's drums are instructive, and they constantly jut out in the mix and he leans right back to the edge of the groove. The rest of the players are no joke though, and the whole album builds up to a beautiful crescendo on 'Mademoiselle Tuloch', a masterclass in loosely jamming out while holding the groove down hard.