MORLACK: Good To Go Go Vol. III (2015)

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SPEEDOMETER: Happy (2014) + DJ Snatch ‘Pharrell vocal’ edit

Speedometer engage in the time-honoured practice of doing a genre cover of a pop standard here. In this case they take hipster-prince Pharrell’s happy-clappy stomp – er – Happy and render it as a soul jazz instro pitched somewhere between S.O.U.L.’s Burning Spear and Smash Mouth’s Walking On The Sun. Which as it turns out isn’t that bad a place. Hmm – an instro though – if only somebody combined it with, say, Pharrell’s vocal, …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MARTHA HIGH & SPEEDOMETER: Soul Overdue (2012)

Original soul sister Martha High sang with The Jewels back in the early sixties and then spent thirty subsequent years touring as a singer with with the late, great godfather of soul, JB, before jumping ship to do the same thing with JB’s former saxophonist Maceo Parker. And aside from a disco LP back in the seventies she hasn’t dropped a full length solo album until now – hence the title Soul ...READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MARTHA HIGH: I’d Rather Go Blind/ No More Heartaches (2012)

Classic sister soul alert! Singer for James Brown’s live show for thirty years and Maceo Parker collaborator, Martha High, gets together with Speedometer for this single off the forthcoming Soul Overdue LP in a performance that would suggest she’s aged like a fine wine. It’s a game of two halves with slowy I’d Rather Go Blind pitted against a blistering cover of Vicki Anderson’s funky…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

SPEEDOMETER: This Is Speedometer: Vol 1 & 2 - 2011

SPEEDOMETER: This Is Speedometer: Vol 1 & 2 - 2011
The kings of espresso-funk get all retrospective on your ass with this gigantic double album consisting of Speedometer’s first two LPs in their entirety. While they always spend far too much time flirting with the jazzy dark side for me, they still can’t help getting down and dirty every now and then so my previous lack of investigation meant that instrumentals like Mullet and vocal cut The Best You Can came as something of a surprise. A lesson then, if it were needed, that you should never underestimate the redemptive power of a good funk. It hasn’t escaped the monkey’s attention, however, that the sound formerly known as ‘acid jazz’…READ THE REST AT MONKEYBOXING.COM