Back in stock: Funk/Reissues

Review: Arp Frique & The Perpetual Singers come together for this most personal gospel funk album which was inspired by the birth of Frique's daughter, Jesamy. It finds the Amsterdam-based multi-instrumentalist mixing up organic funk with obscure synths, bubbly basslines that are always on the move with swirling guitars that add the colour and all make for an unusual and interesting mix of P-funk and gospel-disco. There are plenty of universal messages throughout which all emphasise the need for unconditional love while legendary vocalists like Dennis Bovell, Muriel Blijd, Mariseya, Brandon Delagraentiss and Rocq-E Harrell contribute to the powerful sound. Delagraentiss's choir, The Gospel Experience, also do their bit by adding big, rich, heartfelt vocals. It's quite the listen.

Review: The legendary Roy Ayers has a wealth of great material to his name but Virgin Ubiquity: Unreleased Recordings 1976-1981 might just be the cream of the crop. It's packed with gold that fuses soul and funk, jazz and disco into a load of killer cuts that never got their own release. There are husky vocal tracks featuring Merry Clayton on "Oh What A Lonely Feeling," "I Really Love You" and "What's the T?", sensual soul stirrers from Carla Vaughn such as "Mystic Voyage" and "Together Forever" and of course liquid synths and rhythm sections underpinning each of the tracks.

Review: Chris Bangs' varied and eclectic musical journey is a key reason he was chosen to curate a compilation for Ace. With a background ranging from space rock with The Mighty Om to DJ residencies across London, Bangs' career spans numerous genres, from jazz, funk, to soul. Bangs' DJ sets and parties - in such time-honoured venues as Special Branch in Brentford, London - were seminal in the evolution of the acid jazz genre alongside Gilles Peterson, where "acid jazz was never meant to be more than a pisstake". His foray into production, such as the proto-acid jazz classic 'Psychedelic Jack' with Peterson on vocals, cemented his legacy, but it's curation highlights such as this that really get our gears going. Hold tight as we scour early acid jazz brilliants from Gunky to Vera Cruz to Brazilian Skies to Jubilation.

Review: New York outfit The Budos Band return with their first full-length release on Diamond West, the new label founded by band members Tom Brenneck and Jared Tankel. VII was produced by Brenneck and engineered by Simon Guzman and has plenty of their signature taut, groove-driven tracks that blend Afro-soul, doom rock and 70s psychedelia. They were all recorded in California and feature the percussionist Rich Tarrana, who adds his own fresh texture without detracting from the raw, hypnotic MO of the band. As usual, this is music that is equal parts cinematic and visceral and is perfect for nocturnal drives and deep immersion. Now more than two decades in, The Budos Band are still able to surprise and compel.

Review: New Zealand-born Lance Ferguson has been the beating heart of Melbourne's modern funk and soul scene for the best part of two decades. It's this that allowed him to gather many of the city's best musicians together to record "Rare Groove Spectrum", an album of fresh covers of rare and classic funk, soul and Latin jams. There are some killer versions to be found amongst the 11 tracks on offer. We're particularly enjoying the collective's riotous instrumental revision of Pleasure classic "Joyous", the strutting deep funk heaviness of "Egg Roll" (a similarly restless cover of a mysterious but much-played cut that should be familiar to dusty-fingered diggers and knowledgeable dancers) and the sumptuous summer breeze that is the combo's meandering take on Earth, Wind and Fire staple "Brazilian Rhyme". It is, though, all superb.

Review: James Gallardo & Sol released their collaborative debut album in 1975 in a burst of bright colour and next-level musicianship. There's a fiery, rockist spirit running through the over driven guitar cartwheeling through "Maranatha", but there's equal space for measured grooves and Gallardo's expressive horn playing. Mellower moments like "Patrice" let in a more soulful side of the project, while "El Que Se Fue" nods to the Latin roots of Sol. Expansive, bold and inventive, this is a treasure for jazz funk heads, marking the first official repress since the first copies slipped out many moons ago.

Review: By now, we should all know what to expect from Lack of Afro, AKA veteran funk, soul and hip-hop producer Adam Gibbons. This fourth studio album for regular home Freestyle Records is being pitched as his most eclectic yet. Certainly, there's plenty of variety in the textures, styles and tempos, from the disco-funk stomp of Herbal T hook-up "Brown Sugar" and sweet Northern Soul blast of "The Contender" (all fuzzy guitars and pleasing horns), to the soft soul shuffle of "Making It Right" and Breakestra-ish hip-hop funk of "Here We Go Again". Despite the variety, Gibbons is still at his best when really cutting loose, as the superb opener "Freedom" adeptly demonstrates.

Review: Even by the consistently high standards of Analog Africa, this release is something special. It consists entirely of previously unheard music by Orchestre Abass, an obscure outfit from Togo who released a handful of singles on Polydor Ghana in the early 1970s. Remarkably, all bar one of the tracks on "De Bassari Togo" were found on a long forgotten reel of tape that had sat on a shelf in a Ghanaian warehouse for the best part of 35 years. That was ten years ago; it's taken that long to track down the remaining members of the band and license the material. In truth, the tracks have aged exceptionally well, with the band's infectious, organ-led sound adding distinct Arabic influences (a result of the band members' time spent studying in Islamic schools) to their heavy funk rhythms and riotous Afro-funk vibes.

Review: The Houston Talent Expo '82 is one of those curious releases that has come out of a very special moment in time. Moreover, it's a one-off, a exception that came to be out of chance. The group was an extended collection of African-American in the Houston area throughout the 1980s, and this was their only release as a unit. "Let's Get High" sets the scene in perfect fashion, a funky, slow-motion groove with enough soul to kill the devil himself, but there's even gear for the diggers and samplers to salivate over. The absurdly good "Chocolate Coated People" drops a wonky, gritty slice of percussion over drugged-out melodies and a sea of funkiness. This is a truly special piece of music - don't miss it.

Review: Mr Bongo reissues a classic record here from an iconic musical maverick. From her roots in India, to becoming a world famous artist with a celebrated career in music and acting, Asha Puthli forged a career path through '60s psych, free jazz, pop, rock, disco, and more. Her 1976 album The Devil Is Loose is maybe the most well known record, featuring the classic 'Space Talk' which was championed by many DJs, most famously the late David Mancuso at The Loft, in addition to being sampled The Notorious B.I.G., P Diddy and The Pharcyde. In later years, Puhtli went on to collaborate with the likes of Bill Laswell, DJ Spooky and Talvin Singh.

Review: Previously a Record Store Day special, Colemine elevate this epic 45" compendium to permanent status. 22 tracks heavy, the double 12" whammy unites some of Colemine's finest curations over the years into one perfect collection. From the rare shimmering guitars and woozy horns of The Rugged Nuggets to Colemine debuts such as the sweaty afrofunk boogaloo fusion of Ikebe Shakedown's 2009 breakthrough "Hard Stepping" and the garage funk fizz of Alan Evans Trio's 2012 "Drop Hop" via the beautiful "Smile" from Duran Jones & The Indications' debut album last year, no other album represents the breadth, warmth and vitality of Colemine quite as succinctly as this collection. Slab it up.

Review: The result of three years of digging through tapes of "strange music" in the Radio Mogadishu archives and restless research to find the musicians involved, Analog Africa's latest compilation shines a light on Somalia's previously undocumented dance music scene. It features tracks recorded between 1972 and '91 by a variety of unknown artists, with the assembled music touching on disco, psych-funk, Moog-laden club-focused instrumentals and heavyweight, Bob Marley-inspired reggae rhythms. It's a hugely vibrant and entertaining set of off-kilter and unusual Somalian translations of American and Caribbean music styles, with the bumper accompanying booklet offering up a wealth of little-known information.