HERMA PUMA: Jungle Brothers vs. Peacemakers (Herma reblend) (2011)

HERMA PUMA: Jungle Brothers vs. Peacemakers (Herma reblend) (2011)
Did you hear the one about what you get if you cross Jimbrowski by old school hip-hop legends Jungle Brothers with Don’t Push Your Luck by old school funk legends The Peacemakers? No? Dope shit is what. It ain’t funny but it’s sure as hell is funky. Transatlantic production team Herma Puma (a.k.a. producers Simple X and Pimpernel Jones) dropped their LP Synchromystic which was stuffed with enough old school-influenced goodness to induce an instant pimp limp…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

PALOV feat. LADY FAYE: Troubles (2011)

PALOV feat. LADY FAYE: Troubles (2011)
Probably the best thing I’ve heard off the Cast-A-Blast label this year this is a big slice of soulful late night reggae with a dope rnb style from Lady Faye along the lines of Katalyst and Stephanie Mckay’s bomb track from back in March. The acoustic feel of Palov’s original with gets a heavy dub-fuelled makeover from Jazz K Lipa and is all about the b-line and reverbed horns while Dirty Dubsters apply some jazzy junglist pressha. Also comes accompanied by…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DUSTY TONEZ: Red Hot Chili Banger (2011) – Free download

DUSTY TONEZ: Red Hot Chili Banger (2011) – Free download
Dusty Tonez works his (blood, sugar, sex) magic and gets all freaky in a ghetto funk styley by staging a raid on the Red Hot Pipe And Slippers back catalogue. Fed into the juicer is the guitar from Can’t Stop, the acapella from Give It Away, some heavy breaks to supply a bit of hump de bump and bass wobbly enough to give you a…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FUNKSHONE: It Ain’t Never Gonna Work/ Aberlady Fry (2011)

FUNKSHONE: It Ain’t Never Gonna Work/ Aberlady Fry (2011)
Funkshone follow up their mighty Soul Survivor with a new seven inch before their second album drops. Less raw than earlier releases, vocal cut Ain’t Never Gonna Work featuring Jaelee Small channels the seventies via the nineties. What? Yeah – it’s that twenty year retro cycle thing isn’t it because guess was hot in 1991 apart from grunge? That’s right retro seventies funk. So…er - that means this sounds like music from twenty years ago, that was trying to sound like music from twenty years before that. Ladies and gentlemen I give you…neo-retro-funk. Yep, Mike Bandoni and the boys are tapping into the same vein that Freestyle and Record Kicks and Smoove & Turrell have all been heavily hitting recently with no small success. …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

SAVANT: ‘Make Your Move’ remix competition (2011)

SAVANT: ‘Make Your Move’ remix competition (2011)
Calling all hip-hop producers, ghetto funk old-school plunderers, mash-up jockeys and other beatsmiths – it’s competition time! Earlier this year true school emcee Savant linked with OHHLA and RapReviews to drop the fresh original Make Your Move (vid below) which was produced by Luke ‘Wagon Christ’ Vibert no less! Now the acapella is up for grabs! Use it wholesale, chop it, re-arrange and supply your own beats but whatever you do – make it bang! The winning remix (chosen by Savant) will…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DOJO CUTS: You Make Lovin Real Easy (Tighten Up Version 2011) – Free download

DOJO CUTS: You Make Lovin Real Easy (Tighten Up Version 2011) – Free download
Is it me or is much of the contemporary funk scene vying to see who can put out stuff that sounds the most like nineties acid jazz at the minute? Whatever the situation, Record Kicks raise the stakes by making freely available Oz funkers Dojo Cuts‘ own rework of
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

ATMOSPHERE: The Family Sign (2011) – Album review

ATMOSPHERE: The Family Sign (2011) – Album review
This must be the worst album leak ever – even the shops have got hold of it before the release date! Officially, Minneapolis emo-hip-hoppers Atmosphere drop their latest album next week but it’s already available from numerous UK and US big name web stores and (in several cases) has been for some time. If you’re one of the three people on the planet who haven’t already heard it – what follows is for you – in the best time-saving, track-by-track Byron Crawford stylee. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t written a review since last year so I feel even less bothered about jacking his steez than the last few times I did…Anyway, it’s album fifty nine for Atmosphere – let’s see how they got on:
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

B-SIDE: All The Girls EP (2011)

B SIDE: All The Girls EP (2011)
B-Side continues the BigM label’s shameless but worthy goal to get as many females on the dancefloor as possible with this digital release of a brace of hands-in the-air-affairs. The first, All The Girls, seems to be something of a bass-wobbling, snare-crashing salute to the ladies while the digi-wah toting second Move That Ass is based around a sentiment that is grammatically an order although could conceivably (‘That’s right baby, move that ass!’) be intended as a compliment. Delivered by a porn star…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BBP: The Freak Hop EP (2011)

BBP: The Freak Hop EP (2011)
It says here that the ‘freak hop’ concept was invented by long time Badboe cohort Prosper. ‘Freak hop’, in case you were wondering, seems to be like a mash-up for those with terminal ADHD since it involves combining not two or even three previously recorded tracks but as many as can possibly be crammed into between 4 to six minutes. Didn’t that used to be called a…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive + Clap Hands Song (2011) – free download

T BIRD & THE BREAKS: Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive + Clap Hands Song (2011) – free download
By way of promoting their forthcoming second full length album Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive( due 12 July 2010) Texan heavy funk crew T Bird & The Breaks offer up not one, but two huge slabs of funk as freely downloadable promo singles. The LP title track Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive is a bumping, Ohio Players-esque kind of thang with a little more of the seventies in it than older material while The Clap Hands Song is a driving slice of heavy soul/ sixties-style rnb…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FEATURECAST: Ghetto Funk presents Featurecast EP (2011)

FEATURECAST: Ghetto Funk presents Featurecast EP (2011)
RATING: 5/5
Nowadays I normally wouldn’t bother bigging up a Ghetto Funk label release as it’s difficult to blow your trumpet louder than they blow their own. For starters, there’s the whole name thing. ‘Ghetto funk’ was their idea and it wasn’t the first applied to the artists working in the genre but now it’s the most widely used. Then there’s the fact that in the space of a year, they’ve acquired most of the major players in the genre as part of their ‘crew.’ There’s also the fact that
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FUNKMOGULS: Another Promo Mix (2011) – free download

FUNKMOGULS: Another Promo Mix (2011) – free download
DJ Aka and Sean John, a.k.a. FunkMoguls, are from the Czech Republic and according to their PR, they run shit there in terms of the nufunk/ ghetto funk axis. Never one to believe the hype (especially when half the group is named after a perfume from the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy), I checked them out and guess what?
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

ATMOSPHERE: ‘She’s Enough’ video (2011)

ATMOSPHERE: ‘She’s Enough’ video (2011)
She’s Enough off new LP The Family Sign is Atmosphere’s new track about Slug’s missus. Since it’s Atmosphere though, it’s not ‘she’s enough’ as in ‘Bloody hell mate, one’s enough! Christ – imagine having two wives?!’ but rather ‘she’s enough’ as in ‘she completes me, I’ll do anything she wants.’ This sentiment is conveyed through the medium of video by the juxtaposition of Slug’s lyrics and Ant’s energetic beat with visuals of Slug’s ‘son’s journey through the primary school day as he periodically…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CLUB TIKKA 45 VOL. 6: Renegades Of Jazz ‘Moo Juice’ (Benji Boko remix)/ Timax ‘Ramsey’s Groove’ (ROJ remix)(2011)

CLUB TIKKA 45 VOL. 6: Renegades Of Jazz ‘Moo Juice’ (Benji Boko remix)/ Timax ‘Ramsey’s Groove’ (ROJ remix)(2011)
Dropping at almost exactly the same time as Renegades Of Jazz’s excellent Moo Juice EP, this ultra-limited Club Tikka 45 is all set to make it an ROJ end-of-the-month. Containing a Benji Boko remix of the ROJ original featuring the vocal skills of Brighton’s soul/ hip-hop crew Boycom, it also boasts a Renegades Of Jazz remix of a Timax track on the flip. You’d have more luck finding a needle in a haystack than the bits of the ROJ original Boko has actually kept though but…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MADBALL SCIENTISTS: All This Beauty EP (2011)

MADBALL SCIENTISTS: All This Beauty EP (2011)
Maybe it’s the fact that it’s scorchio outside, and I sit writing this in little more than my birthday suit fanned by dusky beauties in fur bikinis but at this moment in time Madball Scientists All This Beauty EP seems the very thing to be listening to. Maybe it’s because the Madball Scientists is a team up between Andre Lamb who hails from the adopted country of trip-hop, New Zealand and legend in his own lifetime David ‘Renegades Of Jazz’ Hanke – the only man to find an original use for jazz loops in a long, long time. Whatever it is, this four track EP has all the louche, laidback decadence of early stuff by downbeat UK outfit Akasha which…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

RESENSE 021: Djtzinas ‘Cienaguera Bass’/ Panama Cardoon ‘Carmen’ (2011)

RESENSE 021: Djtzinas ‘Cienaguera Bass’/ Panama Cardoon ‘Carmen’(2011)
RATING: 5/5
Just too late for this month’s monkeyboxing chart comes the latest cheeky 45 from Austrian label Resense and it’s cumbia agogo. On the one side is Djtzinas’ 185 bpm, Cienaguera Bass which is all very well if you like to indulge in a little drum n bass but it’s the wider appeal of the feel-good hip-hop speed Carmen from Panama Cardoon that rules. It all starts off innocently enough with a deceptively basic break for eight bars but then ‘el carnival’ breaks loose and the wisdom of the simplicity of those kick drums becomes clear. Drop this at the right moment and you’ll…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

RANDA & THE SOUL KINGDOM: The Things (2011)

RANDA & THE SOUL KINGDOM: The Things (2011)
Blimey. Randa in disco shocker! The second album from Aussie funkers Randa & The Soul Kingdom What You Need is in the offing and according to the accompanying press release promises to deliver more deep funk, sixties style soul and, if this The Things anything to go by, a bit of disco fever. And what things is Randa singing about? Going by the sound I’d say silver lame hot pants, white leather roller skates and knee high basketball socks. Best get your…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DUSTY TONEZ: Beware Of The Breaks EP (2011)

DUSTY TONEZ: Beware Of The Breaks EP (2011) + 'Touch The Sky Butterfly' - Free download
I think this should probably have been called the ‘beware of the house music influences EP,’ for Mr Tonez is certainly flirting with the dark side here with all those synth swells on first track Donald Funk. Luckily he remembered to pack some breaks and a wobbly bassline to bring the twenty-first century to what sounded dangerously close to a breaks version of something by The Beloved. Elsewhere JB, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers get a proper…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM