Perfect Toy Germany Vinyl & CDs

Review: B Funk Productions' latest EP is the opener for a new Perfect Toy series named Ultra Funk. The series features electronic break and house beats. Recent Perfect Toy signing B Funk Productions made quite a stir with their download only top positions in Germany and the UK recently. This is their first vinyl release!

Review: Bhakti Jazz is a huge vocal jazz record from the 1980s. It's the sort of hidden gem we all dream about stumbling over and has a big band feel but with exotic food elements and plenty of charming swing. Some of it is hard hitting and challenge, some of it is seductive and sweet, all of it is fresh. Classical, spiritual hard and bop all colour the music while the elegant and acrobatic vocals all bend to fit the mood perfectly. Utterly enthralling from start to finish.

Review: There's not an awful lot of information about Perfect Toy's latest killer funk reissue, which appears to gather together two different recordings of 'Big' Jim Cartwright's sole single, 'Stone Born Country Boy'. At least two original pressings of the obscure, extremely hard-to-find single exist, with Cartwright recording slightly different versions each time. On this essential reissue, the (probably later) A-side version is the superior recording; tighter, heavier and blessed with female backing vocals, it's a fiery chunk of country funk from the point when the style was starting to diverge from rhythm and blues. The marginally longer flipside take is most likely an earlier recording; fuzzier and more raucous, it is closer in tone to purist rhythm and blues.

Review: 55 years have passed since Bobby Cole lay this one down in 1965 but that has done nothing to diminish its charms. This reissue from Omnivore has been fully sanctioned by the Estate of Bobby Cole and rightly so because it has had the full treatment - produced for release by Grammy-winner Cheryl Pawelski and remastered by Grammy-winner Michael Graves it captures Cole at his best. He was said to be Frank Sinatra's favourite saloon singer and the range he shows here goes some way to proving why. For some reason, the album was a critical but not commercial success.

Review: Taking their cues from some of the more spiritual and celestial thinkers in jazz's history, German group Cosmic Groove Orchestra have turned their influences into something truly transcendent. Time Has Come has a genuine vibe to it that's fresh and unique - all the tracks recorded live and organically, letting the instruments breathe in the room to create a hothouse of ideas. The instrumentation itself is unique - a mix of harp, electric guitar, drums and double bass. Using the harp in a jazz setting instantly reminds you of Alice Coltrane, and this debt is acknowledged by their cover of her classic Journey in Satchidananda.



The electric guitar really gets to shine though on "Midnight Tango", which stumbles drunkenly at a deathly slow pace while a guitar solo glides wildly over the top playing Eastern European motifs. More conventionally, the two part "Suite Cosmique" reaches for the stars with the harp playing some glorious phrases along the way. "Time Has Come" also showers the listener in melody, with the Bill Frisell-like guitar playing recalling some of Miles Davis's late-60s output.

Review: Billy Gee & Whole Shabang's 'I'll Stop At Nothing' originally came on the Perfect Toy label back in May 2019, before we had ever heard of the word 'covid.' Mad huh. Anyway, it now gets pressed up to this tidy 7" and cannot fail to get you in a spin. The driving four four dumps and backed by supersized horns and impassioned male vocals with more than a little fancy flutter in the delivery. On the flip is something quite different - 'Not My Boy' lows right down and sinks into a more intimate American-slash-western sound with noodling horns and bass.

Review: Perfect Toy's very own Marcus Hacker presents a selection of terrific dancefloor jazz bombs: Brazilian & soul flavoured deep jazz tracks as well as heavy jazz funk. Featuring amongst others: Chet Baker, Heikki Sarmanto, Heinz Kiessling, The Earthquakers

Review: Perfect Toy's very own Marcus Hacker presents a selection of terrific dancefloor jazz bombs: Brazilian & soul flavoured deep jazz tracks as well as heavy jazz funk. Featuring amongst others: Chet Baker, Heikki Sarmanto, Heinz Kiessling, The Earthquakers

Review: Four songs by Munich based jazz quintet Hipnosis remixed by Diesler (Tru Thoughts), Liquid Loop, Boris Carloff and Daniel Regenberg.

Review: After several Funk releases on Perfect Toy Records, the Creative Musicians Records and the first part of Tobias' Movements series Perfect Toy drops the second part of this rare 45 monster compilation! 15 funk/soul rarities from the 1960s/70s compiled by Munich's Tobias Kirmayer (Tramp Records, Soul Popcorn Jazz Kombinat). Comes with comprehensive inside notes. Featuring the talents of Phil Flowers, Emperor Soul 69, Harmonica Paul, Ray Anthony, 1984, Sisters Love, Bill Thomas & The Fendells.

Review: After several Funk releases on Perfect Toy Records, the Creative Musicians Records and the first part of Tobias' Movements series Perfect Toy drops the second part of this rare 45 monster compilation! 15 funk/soul rarities from the 1960s/70s compiled by Munich's Tobias Kirmayer (Tramp Records, Soul Popcorn Jazz Kombinat). Comes with comprehensive inside notes. Featuring the talents of Phil Flowers, Emperor Soul 69, Harmonica Paul, Ray Anthony, 1984, Sisters Love, Bill Thomas & The Fendells.

Review: Mystery might surround fuzzy soul peddlers The Penny Arcade but we know their cover of Rufus Thomas' "Funky Way" was such a strong favourite on Perfect Toy's "Deep In The Valley" collection that they've served it up on its own 45" complete with a fresh soul sojourn in the form of the hazy, light footed swooner "New Love". Penny for your thoughts?

Review: Taken from last year's immaculate excavation LP The Roy Roberts Experience, both sides here are holy grail northern soul artefacts - frequently fetching over $300 a piece. "I Know What To Do To Satisfy You" is a super-rare feel good upbeat soul gem with steel drums, big brass and keys pinned down to perfect by Roy's soft-but-firm vocals while "Got To Have Your Love" is more of a straight up northern soul floor stomper with some seriously surging organ work singing in harmony with Roy's gutsy deliver. One per customer - this won't hang around!

Review: This is the first of three 10" from Rogall & The Electric Circus Sideshow, a project consisting of Rogall (Jazzanova), Earl Zinger, Hugo Race & Steve Moss (Universal Congress Of ...). Very special guest: Henry Rollins. Limited to 500 hand stamped copies!

Review: Here is "Part Two" in the 10" EP series previewing the upcoming album from Rogall and his Electric Circus Sideshow, consisting of Earl Zinger, Steve Moss (Universal Congress Of) and Hugo Race. This Perfect Toy release is limited and hand stamped.

Review: Until its inclusion on Keb Darge's late '90s Legendary Deep Funk compilation, only a few serious record collectors had heard of Smokin' Shades of Black's sole single, 'Grease Wheels'. Original copies of the private press single are near impossible to find, so this first ever "45" reissue on Perfect Toy is undoubtedly well overdue. 'Grease Wheels' is a rambunctious and riotous affair - a rollicking, Latin-tinged deep funk romp that boasts heavyweight drum-breaks, fiery horns, heady organ riffs and some seriously good jazz-style solos. You'll naturally find original B-side 'Love Is' on the flip. If anything, this is an even heavier deep funk concoction blessed with some fine female backing vocals and sharper, more energetic instrumentation.

Review: Second release of Perfect Toys brand new Ultrafunk series features their new signing, Vienna-based Telemark. "Sanctified" features the powerful vocals of Big John Whitfield, one of the most well known soul singers in Vienna's Clubland. The track is a broken tech-funk monster with an ultra-throbbing bassline. "I Can't Live Without U" deeply explores the beginning of Chicago disco, combined with a classy polyrhythmic drum feeling while "Limelight" is a mutant tech-house tune with a killer bassline reminiscent of 80's synths.

Review: Perfect Toy's ongoing Down & Wired series of psychedelic funk and blue-eyed soul compilations reaches its fifth volume. As with its predecessors, this edition is packed to the rafters with fuzzy, flash-fried fare and heady, dewy-eyed ballads delivered with genuine feeling. There's plenty of notable, lesser-celebrated gems on show throughout, from Lydia Pinkham's odd but excellent, slow-motion cover of 'Hit The Road Jack' and the Rare Earth style heaviness of Changes' 'You'd Be My Woman', to the Nassauvians' impassioned, organ-heavy take on 'Misunderstood' and the reverb-laden, swinging '60s Mod flex of 'Black lantern' by Ceasar & His Romans.

Review: Perfect Toy's ongoing series of psychedelic funk and blue-eyed soul compilation, Down & Wired, has now hit volume six. As usual, this latest volume is piled-high with obscure, overlooked treats, most of which were made in the late 1960s and early '70s. Our picks of an incredibly strong bunch include Hercules & Black Majik's stellar psychedelic rock cover of Edwin Starr hit 'War', the punchy soul-funk fusion of 'Black Time' by Klaas Craats Six, the Meters-meets-Hendrix-uptown heaviness of Staff & Management's 'Fresh Dirt', a fiendishly wild wig-out from The Carolina Tikis ('Rap') and a bluesy slab of southern blue-eyed soul from Mike Peace & Filet of Soul ('Prisoner').

Review: Munich's Zero Crossing with a new EP previewing their forthcoming debut album. Comes with a killer remix from Isolee.