Funk charts

Review: Mr Bongo continue to churn out top-quality re-edits and here they enlist Danny Krivit aka. Mr. K, the New York producer who has longstandingly helped prop up the dance scene there since the early 1960s. Krivit is responsible for perhaps some of the earliest and most significant disco and funk edits on Earth, so we're more than happy to hear these new ones out, in which he lends his ear to two mambi from Latin extraordinaires Sabu Martinez and Nico Gomez. Percussive clanks and boxy slaps abound on this audiophiles' charm.

Review: South African funk outfit Stimela, named after the Zulu word for locomotive, formed out of the ashes of bandleader Ray Phri's previous band, The Cannibals, and soon became an institution in their homeland. Five albums deep in 1986, they also released the astounding Rewind EP, which now gets faithfully reissued by Mr Bongo for a fresh audience. Every track on here is a winner, from the epic, proggy groove of 'I Love You' to the low slung, synth-rich funky angles of 'Shaka Doo Ba'. You won't regret copping this slab of wax, trust us.

Review: Dan Tyler and Nick The Record's third installment in the Mr Bongo Edits series brings a bold twist to Cuban classics with three tracks that are equal parts cosmic and dancefloor-ready. On the A-side, Tyler extends two Juan Pablo Torres tracks from his reissued 1978 'Algo Nuevo' and 1977's 'Super Son.' First, Tyler reimagines 'Cacao,' a standout track from Torres' LP, giving it room to breathe and intensifying the percussive climax with swirling synths and spacey dub effects. It's a track that thrives on a big system, building tension as it goes, and works wonders in the right environmentijust ask anyone who caught it at La Paloma in Barcelona. Next, Tyler dials into 'Pastel En Descarga,' turning the Latin-funk fusion into a punchy, trippy dub with delay and drama, keeping the track's energy while taking it further into spacey, cosmic territory. On the flip, Nick The Record tackles Grupo Los Yoyi's 1977 'Paco La Calle,' taking a 2009 edit and expanding it into a longer, more hypnotic piece. The percussion pushes and pulls as the psychedelic synths swirl, creating a dynamic and ever-building groove. The 2025 version is elevated with new synth lines courtesy of Tyler, deepening the track's psychedelic richness. A cosmic whirlwind of reworks that bridges the gap between '70s Cuban innovation and modern dancefloor sensibilities.

Review: Producer, DJ, and revered collector Marc Davis returns to his Chi-Talo series with a much-anticipated second volume. The Chi-Talo series deals in split EPs; each entry draws on an ultra-rare Chicago house gem and an Italian disco record respectively (one for the A and one for the B), re-working both into an enduring dialectal retelling of each city's contemporaneous come-ups in the 1980s and 90s. This time around, we're met with a reconstruction of 'Bass Construction', first heard on the Italo disco album Crazy Colours by New Sound Quartet (1979). Then comes a wonky, handclapping rendition of The Saucer Planes' 'Straight To The Point', the original of which can hardly be found on the net at all, even now. Both are huge but humble versions, marking out the guidelines for yet more editors to come.