Mashed Up Funk – Vol. 7 review

Artist: Mashed Up Funk
Title: Vol. 7
Label: Mashed Up Funk
Genre: Breakbeat
Format: Digital
Buy From: Juno Download

Four more bootleg blends from the Mashed Up Funk series, which expertly layers well-known acapellas over brilliant funk tracks to consistently provide priceless “WTF?” moments in DJ sets. First up is “Hot Start” which glues the vocals from The Prodigy’s Firestarter over the Blaxploitation theme “Hot Wheels” by Badder Than Evil. A B-Boy staple (that showed up on the Chemical’s “Brothers Gonna Work It Out” mix), it sounds even more bad ass with Keith sneering over the top.

Shimmy Strut welds together ODB’s classic” Shimmy Shimmy Ya” over a recent cover of The Meters’ “Cissy Strut”, and puts some seriously funky swagger under the immortal chorus “ooh baby I like it raw”. Tutto Dreams fuses together a Tutto Matto track with the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” acapella – a nice twist since it’s usually the instrumental parts of Lennox’s and Stewart’s perennial classic that get the mash-up treatment. The superb clash of the ice cold vocals with the warm organic drums and wah-wah guitars has to be heard to be believed.

Rounding off the set is “Change My Bucket”, which takes K-OS’ “Crabbuckit” acapella and marries it to the Stereo MC’s mix of Quannum’s “I Changed My Mind” – still a Nu-Funk anthem after all these years and cleverly recontextualised here. All four tracks are well-crafted, perfectly matched and will kick off a party with ease – just remember to act like you’re laying down the acapellas yourself when you play them out!

Review: Oliver Keens