ABDOMINAL - Pedal Pusher - 2007 - Single review

MC Abdominal. He pushes pedals...not crack.

ABDOMINAL – Pedal Pusher / Radio Friendly – 2007 – Single review
RATING: 5/5
Fuck 2007, hip-hop in 1991 sound so much better. Yes - Abs is back to prove once again that a mind-bendingly whimsical rhyme (about riding his bike), a Golden-era bassline capable of making a small city bounce and a fast looped funk break (courtesy of Ugly Duckling's DJ Einstein) are still dope. And the Cut Chemist-produced B-side is equally solid. It’s almost embarrassing that a formula so old still sounds so fresh – especially when compared to this year’s lack of virtually any memorable mainstream hip-hop hits - a bit like watching a father run effortless rings around his asthmatic-lardass of a chip-eating teenage son on the soccer field. Bring on the LP!
Out now.
Listen to Abdominal - Pedal Pusher

THE BAMBOOS - Rawville - 2007 - Album review

THE BAMBOOS – Rawville – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Bring It Home – Get In The Scene – My Baby’s Cheating - Rawville
SOUNDBITE: 'I been told that you're keepin it outta sight/ Someone say hit me..'
RATING: 4/5
Rawville. Where’s that then? Fucked if I know, but it conjures a picture of spit and sawdust clubs on sultry evenings in big U.S. cities at the ass-end of the sixties where the disenfranchised got down to a new, raw and funky sound. Y’know - the sort of joints you might find everyone, including the bar staff and doormen, doing the ‘Camel Walk’ to likes of James Brown, Dyke and The Blazers and The Meters. In other words: Original. Super-heavy. And very. ‘Raw’. F.U.N.K. In latter days, a substantial number of contemporary bands have striven to emulate these funk gods with varying degrees of success. To the novice, many of these new bands may appear to have captured the ‘authentic sound’ of ‘raw’ super-heavy funk. However, to more disturbing funk obsessives like myself, the success of a modern ‘deep funk’ record rests on how closely it captures that original rawness and avoids the slightest hint of what some (incorrectly) call ‘acid jazz’ – but which is properly referred to as ‘bland shite’. Presumably the name of this LP was meant to evoke the classic original funk sound to which The Bamboos aspire. However, perhaps because Melbourne’s (and, to be fair, one of the world’s) finest contemporary funk bands have gone for a greater variety of styles than on first LP Step It Up, some of the instrumental tracks on Rawville, particularly opener The Bamboos Theme, have (to me), just the faintest whiff of the evil stench of Incognito and The Brand New Heavies. Now don’t get all sensitive – it’s not something to worry about overly, it’s just that one or two tracks are either a bit too layered or a bit too studied and uptight to be truly ‘raw’ though having said that, the title track is a phat slice of Hammond-featuring Meters-style action that will rock joints without even breaking a sweat. Make no mistake - overall this is a solid modern deep funk LP that is all the better for an increase in vocal cuts this time around and it’s these you’ll want the LP for. Alice Russell’s superb sister soul action on second track Bring It Home completely quashes initial concerns and singers Kylie Auldist and Tyra Hammond capably take centre stage for two more seventies-sounding tracks. But the real bad boy is the tag team of Fallon Williams’ gravelly vocal and a wicked horn riff from the band on My Baby’s Cheating resulting in a mighty funk bomb from just like back in the day. Rapper Ohmega Watts also steps up to the mic on two occasions – to a) demonstrate that The Bamboos have a record collection that actually includes stuff after 1978 and b) supply competent verse on the piccolo-tastic and impressively catchy Get In The Scene although on Rockin It he doesn’t sound like he’s that bothered. If you’re particularly down with Breakestra, Quantic and the like you’ll no doubt think I’ve been a slightly harsh – but like I said – I’m a disturbing funk obsessive. And – 4 out of 5 is pretty damn respectable.
Out now
Listen toThe Bamboos - Rawville

SISTER FUNK 2 - Various - 2007 - Album review

SISTER FUNK 2 – Various – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Honey & The Bees (Love Addict) - Sandy Gaye (Watch The Dog…) - Althea Spencer (Take Me Baby) - Barbara Mason (You Better Stop It)
SOUNDBITE: “Watch the dog!”
RATING: Overall 5/5 – The Sandy Gaye track 10/5 (don’t worry - that’ll make sense when you hear it.)
It must be the Devil’s own job by now to come up with a collection of classic funky soul female vocal 45s that somebody hasn’t already compiled a million times – probably with a title containing words like ‘sister’ and ‘funk’. Ian Wright (the DJ one) should know as it’s taken him seven years to compile this sequel to Sister Funk - time you have to hope he spent digging the crates rather than working on what to call it. The thing is, with the million other such compilations out there, you’d need a good reason to buy this one. Still, the series isn’t subtitled The Sound of the Unknown Soul Sisters for nothing and you’d be hard-pressed to find these twenty funky little puppies any other way than on this album. But by far the greatest reason to make you part with money is two short words. ‘Sandy’ and ‘Gaye’. If her Watch The Dog That Bring The Bone doesn’t actually make some sort of bone appear when you hear it (even if you’re female) then you better be checking you’ve still got a pulse. I paid fifteen quid for the album on the basis of this one track and there’s no way you’d get it for that on E-bay even if you could find it on there. Which you won’t. My mate still laughed at me when I told him this – but that was fine, because I enjoyed his slack jawed amazement when he first heard it. If there’s a more massive slice of southern funky-ass soul – I think I should be told. The bass line on this is the shit – it’s the mother of all the biggest funky soul basslines you’ve ever heard, tweaked by angels, triple-tracked by God and then jacked by the Devil (obviously), over which perfect horns, wah-wah guitar and solid up-tempo percussion battle to match Sandy Gaye belting lyrics out with so much abandon it’s like she doesn’t care if her vocal chords ever recover. And the rest of it? Well (notwithstanding the fact that the Sandy Gaye track is in the first ten) I prefer the latter half of the LP – though that’s still a good ten tracks. Honourable mentions in the first half do have to go to Honey & The Bees’ dancefloor belter Love Addict and Barbara Trent’s shuffling speed-soul take on the King’s Heartbreak Hotel. Unfortunately several of the tracks (the Rhetta Hughes and Big Ella ones particularly) start off like corkers but then the tunes take a nosedive into the sort of non-bluesey chord progressions I associate more with Northern Soul – a bit like drinking a glass of the finest Belgian beer that becomes Fosters without warning on the second mouthful. Nevertheless, the second half of the LP veers from bombs like the fast funky soul of Althea Spencer’s Take Me Baby to the Latin influences of Cheryl Johnson’s It’s not too late, slightly psychedelic numbers like The Fabulettes Muddy Waters and even some disco-fever in the shape of Vivian Lee and Florence Trapp. This isn’t the quite the greatest compilation of funky female vocals ever compiled (currently I’d give that accolade to the concisely titled I’m A Good Woman Vol. 3: Funk Classics From Sassy Soul Sisters) but a true connoisseur seeks out the more esoteric classics as well as the obvious ones and Sister Funk 2 is the motherlode of funky-soul esoterica. Oh yeah – and don’t forget that ignoring Sandy Gaye would be an unspeakable act of treason to the funk. Don’t take my word for it – click the link below and improve your life!
Listen to Sister Funk 2

HIEROGLYPHICS - Over Time - 2007 - Album review

HIEROGLYPHICS – Over Time – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: You Never Knew/ Masterminds/ Phoney Phranchise/ It’s about Time/ If You Must/ Cyberpunks
SOUNDBITE: “I was dazed and confused, now I’m amazed and amused”
RATING: 5/5
Planning an invasion? Send out a scouting party! This collection of B-sides, rarities and remixes appears to be the vanguard of the upcoming Hiero onslaught (there are two new LPs by Del the Funky Homosapien and another by Souls of Mischief on the horizon) sent to check out the lie of the land and measure the collaboration potential of the hip-hop buying public. And if this is the scouting party, people won’t so much collaborate as offer the summer’s big Hiero Imperium arrivals open arms, the best houses and their pick of the womenfolk. Normally such a compilation appears when fat, sweaty record execs gleefully realise that an artists’ musical cast-offs have achieved critical mass - i.e. when the artists themselves have rejected enough tracks as substandard to constitute an LP. Bung on one or two tracks that are actually half decent as a sweetener and en masse fans can be relied upon to go for said item like a moaning zombie horde for a shopping mall. However, when this happens the moaning isn’t the vacant sigh of animated corpses but the sound of the sentient record-buying public unable to articulate its frustration at getting burnt again. But not this time homes! Hiero run their own shit and as the hardest working collective in hip-hop their labours have borne exceptionally sweet fruit which means it’s tricky trying to find a duff track or even a half-assed one here. It’s hard to see why any of these have become rare let alone why any of them were ever B sides. In short - it’s fucking flames. The bottom heavy Hiero signature sound is omnipresent and lyrically the tracks included explore themes of industry greed, paranoia and rivalry occasionally alternating and sometimes coinciding with selected excerpts from the outermost limits of Del’s weird consciousness. Of all of the Hiero artists he is the most represented here with six cuts out of fourteen. It’s interesting how Del’s nuts lyrics and idea of fat loops and beats is surpassed by Del’s nuts lyrics and Domino’s idea of fat loops and beats on a massive version of Phoney Phrancise consisting of chopped up guitar cuts and bass stabs over a full old school break. Then there’s Dan the Automator’s remix of Del’s If You Must where the original’s synths are replaced by a rolling break and a typically low-key yet schizophrenic Automator stew of samples including what sounds like a choral harmony from a 1950s western soundtrack, mariachi horns and a kid’s nursery rhyme. Domino’s production is again shown to good effect on his remix of opener You Never Knew which employs a minimal muted rhythm guitar as a solid platform for Hiero to reveal “It’s not a wrong thing to be addicted to a microphone like a heroin fiend.” Whatever you say boys! Del and Tajai’s Masterminds is an edgy slice of future funk, Souls of Mischief’s Soundscience gets a subtle makeover and we end up with more of Del’s weird sci-fi shit on the giant Cyberpunk. And that hasn’t even begun to do the LP justice. Like I said. Flames. Especially if you like Del. Out now.
Listen to Hieroglyphics - Over Time

LET'S BOOGALOO VOL. 4 - Various - 2007 - (Vinyl) Album review

LET’S BOOGALOO VOL.4 - Various – 2007 – (Vinyl) Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: The New Mastersounds (Thirty Three) – Baby Charles (No Controlling Me) – Osaka Monaurail (Down And Out)/ Billy Garner (You’re Wasting My Time)
SOUNDBITE: “You’re wasting my time…”
RATING: 3/5 (on vinyl – see below) 4/5 on CD
The Let’s Boogaloo series continues apace and this time around the Record Kicks boys invite DJ Andy Smith to dig up the “Deep Funk, Soul, Latin, Dancefloor Jazz, alltime stompers and future classics” that are the compilations’ calling card. A word of warning though - if you particularly like funk and you buy the vinyl version you get stitched up like a kipper as three (3!) funk tracks are left off. Not bothering to include the Sweet Vandals’ cover of Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag I can live with, but the omission of two classic sister soul cuts - Ann Alford’s fat slice of wah-wah funk Got To Get Me A Job and Little Ann’s breakbeat soul gem One Way Street is criminal. Thanks very much, Record Kicks. If there wasn’t enough space on a single record – here’s a thought - double fucking vinyl! And to make matters worse - what is left contains a heavy preponderance of Latin and Northern Soul. I don’t mind the Latin stuff so much – as summer draws closer I like to sit on my patio, sip a Mojito and pretend I’m in Cuba as much as the next man even if this record includes usual compilation suspects such as Ralph Robles’ Taking Over which I last caught on Latin comp. Brown Sugar back in ‘02. However, as far as I’m concerned (apart from a couple of tolerable numbers by Eddie Palmieri and The Harvey Averne Dozen) you can pretty much completely ignore the second half of the album unless you actually like Northern Soul songs which all sound like The Supremes’ I Can’t Help Myself (infamously re-written for an ancient Kellogs cereal advert) - in which case leave this site immediately. And so we return to the first half of the album or ‘Side A’ for vinyl heads. The New Mastersounds kick us off with an upbeat funky instrumental that’s definitely worth a second listen, Brighton’s Baby Charles deliver a hefty slice of fast JB’s style funk and singer Dionne Charles delivers a not un-Mary-Jane Hooper-like vocal. Osaka Monaurail’s Down And Out is a itchy little dancefloor teaser but the best track, certainly on the vinyl, has to be Billy Garner’s dirty, raucous, raw-voiced 1971 funk track You’re Wasting My Time with a killer organ hook. The Ann Alford and Little Ann tracks would certainly give this one a run for it’s money but there’s no accounting for bizarre decisions regarding tracklists and formats is there? From a vinyl perspective - very disappointing. Record Kicks could at least do the decent thing and release the Ann Alford and Little Ann tracks as a double A-sided 45…
Out now.
Listen to Let's Boogaloo Vol.4

MARK RONSON - Version - 2007 - Album review

MARK RONSON – Version – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Oh My God (feat. Lily Allen)/ Amy (feat. Kenna)/ L.S.F. (feat. Kasabian)
SOUNDBITE: Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before…
RATING: 3/5
Covering a song’s always a bit risky isn’t it? I mean - you might be loved for what you’ve done with the original…but there’s an even chance you’ll be fucking despised for your outrage. All the more respect for Ronson’s courage then, as he goes fully ‘balls out’ here with his stated intention of producing a whole LP of covers of everyone from Britney Spears to The Jam. In the style of seventies Motown or Stax… In order to make good on such borderline hubris Ronson makes heavy use on the LP of The Daptone Horns. Indeed these boys get to kick the whole thing off by featuring on a version of Coldplay’s God Put A Smile On Your Face which lifted my features – because firstly (and a reason in itself to celebrate) Ronson has made a Coldplay song NOT sound bland. It isn’t a great track - but I’d blame that more on the poor quality of the source material. In fact, Coldplay’s inability to generate anything other than a tedious dirge to accompany Chris Martin’s whiny yodelling drivel brings me to a second reason to be cheerful – the fact that this in an instrumental. Things look up more on Oh My God with Lily Allen making the Kaiser Chief’s number so much her own that it sounds pretty much like something off Alright Still which is fine by me. Singles Stop Me (a kind of diet-Crazy by Gnarls Barkley track) and Britney cover Toxic follow. The more I listen to these, the more the first grows on me and the second becomes almost as annoying as Britney herself – though originally – it was the other way around. ODB’s resurrected vocal on Toxic is about as exciting as the sax and Tiggers’ voice have become irritating. Amy Winehouse’s Valerie on the other hand will neither offend Zutons fans (a pity) nor piss off lovers of original Motown stuff and this is the one track on the LP that sounds closest to the sound Ronson was aiming for. Shame it’s not a breakbeat track. Maximo Park’s Apply Some Pressure just sounds like Dexys Midnight Runners (if you don’t know – don’t ask) and makes me scramble for the skip control. Inversion is a very short instrumental followed by Santo Gold on The Jam’s Pretty Green which sounds less like Motown and more like Amazulu (again – if you don’t know don’t ask), while Radiohead’s Just - featuring OC-soundtrack bitches Phantom Planet - is so impressively forgettable that it I can’t remember what I was going to say about it. However, Ryan Adam’s Amy has a wicked buttered-soul bass-line and Kenna’s vocals give it an early nineties ‘Madchester’ feel (plus horns) and appropriately enough it is juxtaposed with The Only One I know where Robbie Williams manages the incredible feat of having an even weedier voice than Tim Burgess on the original by the Charlatans. Ronson then does one of his musical interludes again which merges into a version of Kasabian’s monster track L.S.F. featuring vocals by – er – Kasabian. And horns. So, less a cover than remix then. It says something for what Ronson has done with this that I’ll forgive his losing the organ break (my favourite bit of the original) and coming up with the best track on the LP which is followed only by a final instrumental inspiringly named Outversion. Now, about that ‘Motown/ Stax claim – I’m afraid it has to be said that Ronson’s attempts at recreating ‘breakbeat soul’ aren’t particularly convincing because a) just giving everything a horn section maketh not the funk, b) none of the singers (apart from Amy Winehouse) sound like a Motown or Stax artist and c) his beats are the product of a hip-hop / big beat club DJ sensibility and thus at times have all the subtlety of Ronald McDonald at a funeral - unlike real Motown. But that’s not to say it’s bad, because there are actually a few good moments on this and if you like clubbing and horn sections and indie-pop across the decades (and I suspect quite a lot of people will discover that’s them) - I imagine you’ll want to give this a go. Released April 16 2007
RELATED LINKS
Listen to Mark Ronson - Version
Mark Ronson - Myspace
www.markronson.co.uk
Lyrics - Mark Ronson - Version
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MARK RONSON - LIVE SHOWS ANNOUNCED + 'STOP ME' DOWNLOAD NOW AVAILABLE

Hot damn – it seems to be 'Mark Ronson month' here at the moment – but then that’s because he has a very active publicist - see below for more.

(If you have news you'd like posted on monkeyboxingempire - please contact me via myspace (link in sidebar).



“Man of the moment Mark Ronson has just announced he will be performing two headline shows in May. These will be Mark’s very first headline shows in the UK and he will be performing tracks from his forthcoming album ‘Version’ which is released on April 16 and is undoubtedly one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year. Mark will take the stage with his full 11 piece band and several special guest vocalists.

Full details for the shows are as follows:

May

16th MANCHESTER, Life Café
17th LONDON, Bloomsbury Ballroom

Tickets available now:

TICKETS ARE £10.00 (MANCHESTER) & £12.50 (LONDON)
24 HR CC HOTLINE Tel: 0871 2200 260
OR BUY ONLINE WWW.GIGSANDTOURS.COM

These shows will be followed up with major festival appearances over the summer, further details to follow.

Also today April 2nd sees the long awaited download date for Mark’s first single ‘Stop Me’. One of the most eagerly awaited singles of the year, the track is already a massive airplay hit having been Top 5 in the national airplay charts for the last few weeks and A listed at all key stations.

The pre release download will be followed up with a CD & 10” released on April 9th, as well as a 3 track exclusive iTunes EP and an additional remix download, also released on April 9th.

Full tracklistings as follows:

CD

‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather
‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather (Chicken Lips remix)
‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather (Dirty South remix)
‘No One Knows’ feat Domino

10”

‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather
‘No One Knows’ feat Domino

Itunes EP

‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather
‘God Put A Smile’
‘No One Knows’ feat Domino

ADL

‘Stop Me’ feat Daniel Merriweather (Kissy Sell Out remix)

The album ‘Version’ will be released on CD & Limited Edition Double Vinyl on April 16.

www.markronson.co.uk

www.youtube.com/markronson

BLACK MILK - Popular Demand - 2007 - Album review

BLACK MILK – Popular Demand – 2007 – Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Sound the Alarm – Play The Keys – Watch ‘Em
SOUNDBITE: You don’t want to get got in Motown…
RATING: 2.5 out of 5
A death here and a semi-retirement there and Black Milk is being lauded as Detroit hip-hop’s new standard-bearer - and what with all the talk about this new LP I was expecting competition for classics like Infernal Affairs or Black On Both Sides. After all, this man’s acquired an impressive reputation for production of (among others) Canibus, Pharoahe Monch and Slum Village - all of whom are fairly good reference points for his sound. It takes little effort to imagine Pharoahe putting out something as good as Sound the Alarm - the second track on this LP. The last time I heard a bassline that stretchy was on Diamond D’s Sally’s Got A One Track Mind but the next time anything striking appears it’s the sparse piano tinkling of Play The Keys over half way through the album - and this is also one of the shortest tracks on at just over a minute and a half. It's followed by Watch ‘Em which heads for the club and stands out enough that things look up – until the next track starts. One problem is that this LP just lacks memorable hooks. There is, for example, nothing to rival the quality of Black Milk’s heavyweight Mr Porter collab. Keep It Live from the recent Broken Wax EP. And while he might spit lyrics like Don’t put me in a box dog/ We do it all - compositional variety is also lacking on Popular Demand and again, Broken Wax has a greater range of material in less than half the space. There is some variance in the breaks but most of the tracks on this LP seemed like an undifferentiated heavily layered sonic blur all at a similar tempo and featuring spirit-sapping use of almost identical wailing female soul-ballad vocal loops and layers of strings which were bearable the first time but made me lose the will to live the thirteenth time, but then - admittedly - it’s not a style of hip-hop I particularly like. The outro to Shut It Down which initially I took to be the start of a new track with it’s guitar and thumping kick drum sounded promising - but no, it was just an outro – and it’s never a good sign on a hip-hop record when something like that sounds like it could have been one of the best tracks. As far as flows go, we’re told Producer rappers get the most criticism/ Till they heard Black now they gonna feel different. Well actually, I never had that much beef with ‘producer rappers’ (apart from Diddy) and the first two that sprang to mind (Diamond D and Kanye) never struck me as being inadequate in either rhymes or vocals. While Black Milk’s delivery and lyrics are ok they’re just not that remarkable. So, sorry mate, I don’t feel a whole lot ‘different’. Ultimately it’s all very competent but it just doesn’t set my world on fire. A claim to be hip-hop’s Jimi Hendrix (which I’m sure I heard at one point) is somewhat previous too - stand-outs are the exception rather than the rule on this album. If you like Slum Village and J Dilla you’ll probably like this too, but I’ll leave you with a quote of something I once read in another review that seems to apply here, “Phew!…reviewing records like this is really tricky. It’s not good, it’s not shit…it’s just average hip-hop.” Out now.
Listen to Black Milk - Popular Demand

Black Milk - Myspace

MARK RONSON - Stop Me - 2007 - Single review

MARK RONSON – Stop Me – 2007 – Single review
RATING: 2/5
It's supposed to be a Motown style reworking, but if you’ve ever wondered what Daniel Bedingfield would sound like covering The Smiths' Stop Me If You’ve Heard this One Before over a breakbeat - here’s your chance to find out as Ronson drafts in an Aussie 'nu-soul' singer whose first name IS Daniel and whose surname could well be Bedingfield (but actually is Merriweather). It also sounds like it keeps threatening to turn into Duran Duran’s Ordinary World. Morrissey approves apparently. Well, I hate Morrissey, I hate The Smiths, I hate Daniel Bedingfield and now I hate Daniel Merriweather. Admittedly catchy, it's a shoe-in for chart and mainstream dancefloor success that I could imagine American Psycho's Patrick Bateman liking. Mark Ronson is a very evil man.
Released 9 April 2007
Listen to Mark Ronson feat. Daniel Merriweather - Stop Me
markronson.co.uk

MARK RONSON New LP - Version - tracklist + Stop Me - video links

(Version is released on April 16, 2007 on Sony Columbia)

TRACKLIST:

1. God Put A Smile Upon Your Face feat. The Daptone Horns
(Coldplay)
2. Oh My God feat. Lily Allen
(Kaiser Chiefs)
3. Stop Me feat. Daniel Merriweather
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before/You Keep Me Hangin' On
(The Smiths/The Supremes)
4. Toxic (Version Revisited) feat. Tiggers
(Britney Spears)
5. Valerie (Version Revisted) feat. Amy Winehouse
(The Zutons)
6. Apply Some Pressure feat. Paul Smith
(Maximo Park)
7. Inversion
(Mark Ronson)
8. Pretty Green feat. Santo Gold
(The Jam)
9. Just feat. Phantom Planet
(Radiohead)
10. Amy feat. Kenna
(Ryan Adams)
11. The Only One I Know feat. Robbie Williams
(The Charlatans)
12. Diversion
(Mark Ronson)
13. L.S.F. (Version Revisited) feat. Kasabian
(Kasabian)
14. Outversion
(Mark Ronson)

The album ‘Version’ is released on April 16th. Single ‘Stop Me’, featuring Daniel Merriweather on vocals that will be released as a digital download on April 2nd and April 9th in shops on all other formats.
Mark Ronson’s official website

MARK RONSON - Stop Me - Video links

Click on these to see it:

Stop Me Video - High res.

Stop Me Video - Low res.

Stop Me Video - youtube.com/markronson