Funk/Reissues charts

Review: Last year, the Expansions label kicked off a wonderfully intriguing 10" series featuring classics from soul music's rich canon complemented by contemporary cover versions and so far it's seen Blue Note troupe Quasimode tee off against Johnny Hammond and Bembe Segue challenge Norman Connors. A third edition duly arrives and hints Expansions are really enjoying the creative challenge the concept allows them with the jazz funk classic "Zaius" from Eddie Russ joined by a cover from the celebrated UK funk veterans Incognito. Originally appearing on the 1976 LP See The Light, "Zaius" is a blinding example of why Russ is described a master of the keyboard and it's complemented well by Incognito's B Side cover which appears on vinyl for the first time. Don't sleep!

Review: Serious jazz dance fusion from 1974, Norman Connors' cover of Carlos Garnett's "Mother Of The Future" drives with shamanistic fury before the firing keys, heaving horns and deep soul vocals fly into the mix. For a more contemporary jazz take, flip for Bembe Segue's emphatic live version. Lavished with her distinctively rich vocals and stern spoken word and complete with wild bass runs and a thick bed of percussion, it's an instant show-stopper. Two incredible covers, one special 10".

Review: A really cool concept from Expansion here; one side is a reissued seminal classic, the other is a contemporary version. And what a way to start the start the series; hard bop hero Johnny Hammond influenced pretty much every soul, jazz, rare groove and funk artist who've followed in his path, and the joyously unpredictable "Los Conquistadores Chocolates" is one of his best. Naturally Japanese jazz outfit Quasimode are an ideal remix choice. Known for their wildstyle riffage and signature switches, they've paid the utmost respect to Hammond.

Review: The Mighty Riders were an American funk group whose 1978 album Help Us Spread The Message is a stone-cold classic for rare groove lovers. It has been famously sampled by De La Soul and now this new 10" release includes the original version of the track the pillaged, namely 'Evil Vibrations'. It comes as an original, an instrumental edit version of the song, and an extended edit. This is a must cop for funk fans as well as hip-hop historians and a standalone tune that still gets the floor going so do not sleep.

Review: Australian DJ and producer Dave Mathmos serves up an obscure edits entree, sampling/reworking a whopping seven disco cuts from the late 1970s and early 1980s, but adding just enough modern flair to essentially make them his own. A well-rounded, sticky quality is heard on this septagonal crock of heaters, with the downtempo slink-funk of 'Late At Night' and the equally sumptuous, string-backed plod of 'Wonderful Feeling' remaining our highlights.

Review: TC.KYLIE x The Hourglass deliver a dynamic jazz fusion outing here that mixes up Hong Kong, Japanese, and British cultures in a top debut album. Jazz fusion pianist Kylie leads her band with great energy while playing keyboard and synth keytar that is a little reminiscent of Japanese jazz rock. Based in Hong Kong and London, she's inspired by Shaun Martin, Robert Glasper and Japanese acid jazz groups like Fox Capture Plan and Jabberloop and that shows in these sounds. They are bright, happy and uplifting with the majestic flute leads of 'Merry-go-round Of Life ' impossible not to fill you with excitement and joy.

Review: Some 25 killer library music cuts by the German film music maestro Peter Thomas, on audiophile pressing, in a deluxe 2×10? set. Uber-rare, never-before-released material spanning 1968-1976 - and sourced from Thomas' personal reel-to-reel tape archive - this bombastic instrumental set spans a whole range of quirky overseen by the composer himself, documenting an approach to composition that essentially augurs electronic music production as we know it today. Prolific in scope, the 25 pieces here rival the sheerly industrious proliferations of many of today's artists, and even outstrips them in quantitative ambition; but then again, what less might one expect from a soundtrack artist by trade, whose work spanned over 600 films? Best of this bunch have to be 'Meeting Palermo', whose brushes revel in a beaucoup frisson, and 'Astral Snow' - a whacked-out absurdist electro-disco frazzler for the most frenetic out there. This one also comes with four recently unearthed 'lost' tracks from Warner Chappell's CPM Archive series, which have never been released on vinyl before. We'll hazard a quip: the word 'timeless' often doesn't come to mind, yet it has done here.