THE FUNK HUNTERS & CMC & SILENTA (feat. SEE-I): Shock Rollin' (2014)

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Feature Breaks Vol. 4: CMC & SILENTA Remixed 2 (2013)

It’s a game of two halves for Roca Records label owners CMC & Silenta on this fourth volume of Feature Breaks where they first soften you up with three cuts off last October’s album Get It On Now and then go in for the kill with three album track guest remixes. Things kick off with moody dancefloor botherer Yeah That’s Right, the skankin Ragga Twins-featuring This Is How We’re Rollin’ and house-crew friendly Where We Started From. Then, before you can say ‘I say – anyone for half an orange?’ The Phunk Junkies tackle Yeah That’s …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FEATURECAST: ‘Run For Cover’ Remixed Vol. 2 (2013)

Brace yourself for a forthcoming second remix EP for tracks off Featurecast‘s game-changing autumn LP Run For Cover that those on production duties are hoping will have you running for the dancefloor. The opening salvo comes from JPOD in the form of a dirty great synth bass assault on Greg Blackman vehicle Soul Children, followed swiftly thereafter by thunderous ghetto funk bombardment from B-Side‘s remix of Jump. CMC & Silenta then launch a funky flanking …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CMC & SILENTA: Get It On Now (2012)

The trickle becomes a stream and the stream is shortly to become a flood. I’m on about albums that broadly (let’s not get bogged down in genre politics) fall under the ‘ghetto funk’ heading. The proto ghetto funk LPs were arguably Badboe’s bass wobble free Break The Funk from 2009 and Basement Freaks’ second LP Something Freaky from early 2011. Then young upstarts Morlack and...READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CMC & SILENTA: Feature Breaks Vol. 3 ‘The Night Is Mine’ (2012)

CMC & Silenta take funky breaks to Ibiza in their house-friendly latest cut The Night Is Mine. There’s no video but if there was it would definitely revolve around a large gang of half-dressed pretty young things on “party patrol” in the centre of some Balearic-looking town and move towards either a floodlit pool or a speedboat. Probably both. Maybe it’s the non-breakbeat intro, maybe it’s Vanessa Iraci‘s Euro-house style vocals but this reeks of READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

THE GEMINI BROS: Trump Skyscrapers (2012)

BigM’s latest drop sees The Gemini Bros deliver four-tracker Trump Skyscrapers. When I was a kid ‘trump’ was the word one of my mates dad’s used as a euphemism for a fart (bear with me – this is going somewhere) so you can imagine my amusement when I discovered there was an obscenely rich bloke called Donald Trump. Somehow it was appropriate. Anyway (coincidentally) he built a huge ‘mixed-use’ concrete phallus in NYC called Trump Tower (didn’t find out about that until years later – and when I did it was still amusing) which Gemini Bros. seem to be referencing on what might be termed a mix-use EP. In the…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

THE BAKER BROTHERS: Snap Back Loopmasters EP (2012)

THE BAKER BROTHERS: Snap Back Loopmasters EP (2012)
The Snap Back Loopmasters EP presents the top results from the Record Kicks label’s recent competition to remix recent single Snap Back by funky jazzbos The Baker Brothers. Winning entries come from Funky Bijou, Maleka and Tomasz Betka but hands down winner is German ghetto funkers CMC & Silenta with their chunky re-visit. It all starts out…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CMC & SILENTA: Roca Records presents Feature Breaks Vol. 2 (2011)

CMC & SILENTA: Roca Records presents Feature Breaks Vol. 2 (2011)
Second release in CMC & Silenta’s Feature Breaks series on their Roca imprint and they’ve opened up their back catalogue for remixing. It has to be said that this could be tantamount to handing a nutter some garden shears and getting your wedding tackle out, depending on who you’ve got on remix duties. Never fear though, half the ghetto funk universe were already …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CMC & SILENTA: Feature Breaks Vol 1 (2011) + 'Blue Brothers' free download

CMC & SILENTA: Feature Breaks Vol 1 (2011) + 'Blue Brothers' free download
Feature Breaks Volume 1 sees Manmade Records label owners CMC & Silenta inaugurate the new vinyl series on their other label Roca Records and they’re so excited they’re giving away an EXCLUSIVE FREE DOWNLOAD of their huge good-time funky breaks club classic BLUE BROTHERS via monkeyboxing HERE. As with other Roca releases the emphasis is on sample-free music. First up is a fat-ass, shooting-from-the-hip, wobbly-bass-synth toting refix of the Dub Pistols/ Rodney P cut Ganja…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CMC & SILENTA: Funky Town (2011)

CMC & SILENTA: Funky Town (2011)
Manmade Records’ big boss men, CMC and Silenta have just dropped this party cut on their other label Roca which revolves around the old Banbarra Shack Up beat made famous by (among others) Stetsasonic on Talkin’ All That Jazz. This is the fastest I’ve ever heard it used though and it triggers the bpm radar at a nu funkin 127 bpm or thereabouts. Keeping up is MC Penny wryly observing, “Too sick, comin’ through with my toothpick/ Any style old school, except on the new shit,” among the…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE RECORDS: Feature Funk Vol. 7 – 2011

MANMADE RECORDS: Feature Funk Vol. 7 – 2011
A game of two halves this one. The A side consists of label bosses CMC & Silenta continuing to sidestep predictability with an disco-breaks/ wobbly-bassed/ big female vox-powered cut that seems to have been formulated solely for the purpose of convincing those formerly enamoured of house music that, yes, the nu/ ghetto funk scene has something for them. I certainly didn’t expect that. Then we’ve got new boy Busta who goes a bit electro and applies some LL Cool J but seems in spirit as Majorca bound as C & S. The B-side is…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE RECORDS: Gold Edition - 2010

MANMADE RECORDS: Gold Edition - 2010
Old funk, nufunk, ghettofunk, blue funk – Dr Seuss would have a field day as we live through the most amusing genre-name wars since the old trip-hop vs. blunted beats conflict of the mid-nineties. All that aside, Manmade celebrate their tenth release with some 24 carat action in the form of a double vinyl EP – you know that’ll be cut loud …READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM

BIG M PRODUCTIONS: Banging Artists Vol. 6

BIG M PRODUCTIONS: Banging Artists Vol. 6
RATING: 3.5/5
It’s ‘Volume 6’ o’clock in Nufunk land at the minute and Big M beat Manmade Records to the draw through the simple fact that this is already out. Funnily enough Manmade label bosses CMC & Silenta turn up on the first track on which they give Papa Was A Rolling Stone a disco-breakin makeover. Then you’ve got Breakbeat Junkie throwing a multitude of ingredients into the nufunk melting pot and Hayz feeding beat steroids to the Happy Mondays. So far, so nufunk by numbers. HappilyREAD THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE RECORDS: Feature Funk Vol. 6

MANMADE RECORDS: Feature Funk Vol. 6
And I thought August was supposed to be a slack month for music. You know how it is – artists and the public alike off at festivals indulging in free love and expensive drugs (if not expensive love and free drugs) and nobody seeing any point in releasing anything until September restores sanity. Apparently not this August though for Manmade deliver volume 6 of their ongoing Feature Funk series and its another good-time, floor-filling package of bootlegs from the cheesier end of the nu-funk spectrum. What you get is hands-in-the-air, big-club breakbeat restylings of Hit The Road Jack, The Velvelettes He Was Really Saying Something, a very cheeky use of The Mohawks Beat Me Til I’m Blue by CMC & Silenta plus a frankly Brie-tinged (or similarly aromatic Lithuanian equivalent) appropriation of Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE Feature Funk Vol. 5

MANMADE Feature Funk Vol. 5
Fifth volume from the Manmade Recordings crew and once again it’s label bosses CMC & Silenta who produce the best cut with the pneumatic genre-splicing monster Rock Da Riddim. Thankful as I am that the 90s big beat stylings of Vol. 4 have been left behind I’m not convinced that DJ Kid Stretch’s speedy breaks-plus-Moose-T loop is the way forward. Neither am I sure about Funkanomics’ On The Floor which, despite containing a sample of Tina Turner’s Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter comes on like a disco-Tyrannosaurus or Mr Fudge’s Damian Marley-fied Boot All Night - though my baby daughter had a bit of a boogie to that one so it can’t be all bad.…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE FEATURE FUNK Vol. 4

Manmade's Feature Funk series has been a regular drop over the last year or so, with each volume tending to have a different sub-generic slant (last time round it was mostly disco-tinged) and throwing up some big bangers in the process. There have, however, previously been hints that the label has had an itch to go to the big beat/ breakbeat-house cheesefest ball and on this one…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM

MANMADE: Feature Funk Vol. 3

MANMADE: Feature Funk Vol. 3
The next instalment of mental mash-up mayhem from Manmade with Javier Morillas, Slynk and D*Funk all taking a disco-influenced approach this time around - although it all sounds suspiciously like they’re trying to ‘house’ you. This means it’s up to label bosses CMC & Silenta to wheel out the heavy artillery with…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM