AWB Vinyl & CDs

Review: If you're a DJ who digs funk, soul and disco, there's a fair chance that you are familiar with Average White Band classic "Pick Up The Pieces", a staple of those kinds of sets - and, of course, hip-hop, where its killer break has been looped countless times over the years - since its initial release in 1974. Should you not own a copy of the distinctive, horn-heavy classic, we'd suggest picking up this reissue, not least because it also boasts the band's lesser-known cover of Ned Doheny classic "Get It Up For Love", featuring vocals from no less than Ben E King, on the flip. Their version of the hazy blue-eyed soul gem sits somewhere between Doheny's original version and the arguably better known Tata Vega disco cover.

Review: Japanese electronic disco producer and performer Fujisawa Hideki aka. Dance Man coined the term "mirrorballism" as the philosophy behind his ultra-tight brand of disco. Four albums of mirror-ballistic albums, New Generation Dance Classics Volumes 1-4, appeared before his fifth album, Funkoverlic, surfaced in 2004, from which this ingenious pair of trax, 'Bomber' and 'Hey Hey Ookini Maidoari', came. Translating roughly to "there is a lot of everything" from Japanese, the latter track brims with posse-backed instrumental disco-hop steeze, worthy of bombastic emceeing should any rap collective fancy it. 'Bomber' is comparatively funky, save for its devilish wax scratches, giving way to one of Dance Man's more glamorous vocal lines.