Back catalogue: Funk

Review: Talented Italian collective Aura Safari features well known Italian house producer Nicolas amongst other fine musicians. They have released a fine album on UK label Church but now head to their homeland's Hell Yeah for a debut EP full of magic. 'Lagos Connect' fuses afro drumming with house beats, lush synth work and glowing melodies to make for something beautifully grown up and musical as well as danceable. After the reprise and dub comes 'Morning Rivers,' a super slinky and seductive jazz-funk number with glowing, golden chords and subtle cosmic rays of light.

Review: Yet another 12" rarity from the annals of UK funk & boogie history - this time the 1985 cut 'Sexy Lady' from VeiraKrew. Carribean-born and British-raised pianist Elvis Veira moved to England alongside his pianist and music teacher mother at the age of two, quickly becoming proficient on piano, guitar and bass by his early teens. His love for playing music and singing in choirs propelled him on this musical journey, and his late teens to 20s saw him supporting acts such Heatwave, Wham, Katrina and the Waves and more. In 1983 he started working under the alias VeiraKrew, and a couple of years later in 1985 laid down this 12", backed up with the title track's killer instrumental version and the B-side 'Welcome to a Dream'. It was self-released by Veira, quickly becoming a collector's item with clean copies changing hands for up to 150 a piece. The instrumentals are fresh and filled with life, and 'Welcome to a Dream' is an incredible mid-tempo bopper. Well worthy of a repress, and is sure to be in demand - so don't delay!

Review: A warm welcome back to Bruno Hovart's Voilaaa project, traditionally a revivalist Afro-disco vehicle best known for 2015 dancefloor smash 'Spies Are Watching Me'. 'Fache', featuring Pat Kalla, explores similar sonic territory, with punchy Afrobeat horns, woozy chords and crunchy clavinet licks rising above a low-slung, hypnotic, dub disco-meets-Afro-boogie groove. It comes accompanied by a fine, effects-laden instrumental dub and a trio of similarly tasty bonus cuts: the warming, early garage-house and deep house influenced 'Trouble Travel' (featuring Jai-Nah), the languid, soulful and Latin-influenced 'Too Young To Die (featuring Olivia)' and the Afro-speckled disco-goes-jazz-funk loveliness of 'Trop Jeune Pour Sa'.

Review: Sounds like it came out of Lagos in 1971, actually written and recorded in Lyon in 2015: Voilaaa is the brainchild of Bruno Hovart whose long relationship with Favorite goes way back to his days as Patchworks, Mr President and The Dynamics. Recording on a whole host of vintage machines and calling upon local African singers both cuts have a real authentic sense of realness; "Spies Are Watching Me" drives with big horns and swooning strings which isn't dissimilar to the work of The Movers, while the TY Boys-esque "Le Disco Des Capitales" is a heavier, more concentrated slab of floor-minded disco where the groove takes more of a forefront role. Apparently there's a whole album of this cooking... We can't wait to hear it.

Review: The Emotional Rescue label has done a superb job of shining a light on the British post punk scene over the last decade or so. It now does so once more in fantastic fashion with a compilation of tunes from Bristol's short lived but much loved Recreational Records. The 10 tunes have been remastered and recut and they all sound as good now as ever. Highlights include X-Certs - 'Untogether' and Electric Guitar's 'Don't Wake The Baby' which sum up the collection perfect with their jangling dub rhythms, heavily treated vocals and oodles of delay all twisting your melon. This releases was included in Bandcamp's Essential Releases 2022.