Back catalogue: Funk

Review: Gator Boots is back with two funky edits from beantown afro-latin aficionado Bosq. We've known him for years, but then he dropped one of our favorite albums of 2013 on Ubiquity Records and put his stamp on the new multi-culti sound that has been so influential to us. These two edits fit that mold and have been huge party jams in our sets for the last year. Look out for a full Soul Clap Records EP from Bosq in the future, but for now here's what he has to say about these two mega jams. "Fela edits are tough for me, as anyone who has listened to any of my tracks knows, the man is far and away the greatest influence to my music and to me most of his songs are nearly perfect. This hasn't stopped me from trying over and over - but it has stopped me from releasing them. I finally felt I had something that walked the line enough with this one and was honored when the homies Eli & Charlie asked to put it out on their Gatur Boots series. I think this track has that universal undeniable appeal that can work with just about any dance floor (and thats Fela's doing - I just gave him a little help for the modern sound systems and tried to really work that pacing). On the flip is another band that has influenced me greatly, Fatback! This was one of those edits that slowly started turning more into an original the further on I went, but I could never quite do without those vocals and that infectious bassline. It's always the most fun for me when I can actually add to the track musically and not just rearrange and beef it up, because that's when I feel like it's really becoming more unique and I'm contributing more than just tweaking the details. This one has got everything from rhodes to arp to organ, percussion, etc.

Review: First up on the freshly minted Bacalao imprint is Bosq, a Ubiquity Records contributor renowned for his blends of funk, soul and sweaty South American music. While the heavy horns featured on this release were recorded in Bogota, the producer's usual Colombian flavour takes a back seat as he joins forces with Kaleta to deliver two covers of Fatback Band classics. First up is "Goin' To See My Baby", which is re-imagined as a fuzzy funk workout rich in rasping horns, tropical guitar flourishes and woodblock-driven Latin disco percussion. Arguably even better is the duo's cover of "Backstrokin'", which is given a Barrio-funk flavour complete with prominent bass, heavy-hitting horn motifs and excitable lead vocals.

Review: Bosq's Bacalao label is back with more of that supreme feel-good gear to bring about sunnier days. The artist frequently spotted on Ubiquity knows exactly how to craft a sumptuous groove with a particular focus on Latin music and Afrobeat, and he's doing that with flair and precision on 'C'est Quoi C'est Quoi'. The track features French poet Pat Kalla on vocals, and it's leaps off the 7" primed for festival deployment. If you want to get the crowd locked in and heads down, the 'Gimme Riddim Dub' on the flip may be more your bag, but either way the musicality springs forth from this perfect nugget of globally-minded funk.

Review: You'd expect a collaboration between Columbia-based fusionist Bosq, Ibibio Sound System's horn section and vocalist Kaleta to be pretty darn good, and 'Song For Ehi' most certainly is. Inspired by a combination of classic Edo-funk, Afro-disco and reggae disco, the A-side original version delivers a near perfect mix of timbales-sporting dub disco grooves, reverb-laden lead vocals, Afro-funk guitar licks, Afrobeat-esque organ licks and punchy horns. The track's inherent dubbiness is further explored on the flipside revision, which adds extra layers of percussion and the kind of breathless dancefloor weight that marks out the greatest dub disco workouts. In a word: essential!

Review: American born/Colombia-based producer Ben Woods aka Bosq, and Benin-born vocalist/guitarist Leon Ligan-Majek aka Kaleta follow up on the success of their recent collaboration with Purple Disco Machine, and build on their nearly 10 years of working together with their new Afro disco number 'Ipade'. It features Kaleta's trademark chants and exclamations in a mix of Yoruba and English, over sleek rhythms, a ripping horns section and one funky bassline. Over on the flip, get down deeper into the groove with the lo-slung swagger of 'Ariya Tide'.

Review: Kaleta's first full-length collaboration with the Super Yamba Band, 2019's "Medaho", was something of a slept-on treat: a fiendishly psychedelic Afrobeat affair that was every bit as heavy, colourful and vibrant as you'd expect. Here, one of the album's standout tunes gets the remix treatment courtesy of long-serving, party-starting musical fusionist Bosq. The Ubiquity and Soul Clap stalwart delivers vocal and instrumental passes of "Jibiti", both of which make great use of Kaleta's vocals and Super Yamba Band's fuzzy, Fela Kuti-style horn lines. Bosq's groove is closer in feel to Afro-disco than the original album version, though the bassline, organ stabs and vocals are pure Afrobeat gold.

Review: His agenda set with his 2013 debut album Bosq Y Orchestra De Madera, Whiskey Baron Bosq has gone on to unleash heavy 12s on the likes of Soul Clap, Gator Boots and Flavorhead. Now returning to Ubiquity with his second album, it's a series of street carnivals and dusky, balmy late night soirees that belie their autumnal release. Key examples of this album's arresting personality include the Afrofunk horns and relentless groove of "Bounce & Pull Up", the honeyed chants and positivity of "Take Over" and the straight up disco soul of the Nicole Willis-fronted "Bad For Me".

Review: Bosq, also known as The Whiskey Baron, returns to Ubiquity with his third studio LP for the label, an outlet that has been going strong since '93 thanks to Michael and Jody McFadin. With Bosq, the worldly and the outernational should always be expected, with Love & Resistance providing exactly those two things throughout. With this being a mother of an album, spanning eleven beautiful dance tracks from the deepest and farthest corners of the world, it's sort of difficult to boil it down to one category. However, what we can say is that if you're into classy disco and boogie vibes with a subtle Brazilian edge, then Bosq is your man! Recommended!

Review: Medellin-based American Bosq - a renowned musical fusionist with a passion for all things tropical - has been working with Benin-based Nigerian guitarist/vocalist Kaleta on and off for 12 years, with the pair delivering a series of sensational singles. No Be Today is the duo's first collaborative full length, with previous singles being joined by previously unheard cuts across two slabs of wax. As you'd expect given their previous work, much of the music joins the dots between various Afro-Latin styles and similarly vintage Black American dance music genres such as disco, funk and soul. It's an effervescent and effortlessly brilliant set all told, with highlights including pitched-down Afro-funk number 'Ose', glorious Afro-disco number 'Sonayon', Afrobeat update 'Ipade' and scorching Latin dancefloor workout 'Miselou'.

Review: Taking off where he left us on his Ubiquity albums, Whiskey Baron Bosq flies 1600 miles due south to Puerto Rico to work with a decorated troupe of local musicians and explore the island's sonic cauldron where calypso, Afrobeat, reggae and Latin all lick up a fiery furore. All wrapped up in Bosq's intoxicating dancefloor twist across the eight tracks we're hip-slinking to piano-stroking "Aquarembe", we're nodding and shaking to the sweet skanks of "San Jose 51", we're getting deep, down and slo-mo to the smouldering "Ron Blanco Con Coco" and whole load more. Vinyl only.