Monkeyboxing Blog

VARIOUS: Carnibal Records 001(2012)

2012-01-26T23:16:00.002Z

VARIOUS: Carnibal Records 001(2012)
RATING: 5/5
I may have said this before but I’ve got a playlist on my iTunes called “When this is full enough get Serato.’’ It’s not full yet but this is definitely going to boost the numbers since every track on here is going on it. Why? Because everyone involved on this four-track collection of Latin breaks has produced such a banger this is essentially a miniature digital carnival. Or even carnibal.…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

NEKO NEKO: Trouble In The Streets/ Ya Playin (2012) 12”

2012-01-26T23:14:00.002Z

NEKO NEKO: Trouble In The Streets/ Ya Playin (2012) 12”
RATING: 5/5
This one from Neko Neko is all about track two. In fact it’s so much about track two I’m giving it five stars for just that track. Entitled Ya Playin, it makes inspired use of Jeru Tha Damaja’s Ya Playin’ Yaself vocal over what sounds like a slowed down slice of boogaloo funk with augmented drums and a bottom end that’s boomier than a sledgehammer on the side of a panel van. Actually it’s least ten tons fatter and funkier than you think it is even from that description – kind of like…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FREESTYLE RECORDS: Sounds From The Soul Underground (2012) + tracklist

2012-01-25T22:37:00.003Z

FREESTYLE RECORDS: Sounds From The Soul Underground (2012) + tracklist
It’s not just the monkey doing it you know, Freestyle Records are at it too – although the monkey likes it a bit dirtier and doesn’t mind if those involved want to do it with computers rather than other people. No, not that! Wash your mind out you pervert! I’m talking about soul/funk-related compilations. …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MONKEYBOXING.COM presents ‘Filthy Rhythm, Dirty Soul: Volume 2' - (2012) FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD

2012-01-24T17:53:00.004Z

MONKEYBOXING.COM presents ‘Filthy Rhythm, Dirty Soul: Volume 2' - FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD
he mighty sequel to last year’s wildly successful free monkeyboxing LP finally arrives: the even filthier and even dirtier Filthy Rhythm, Dirty Soul: Vol. 2 which once more features a selection of the biggest FUNK, SOUL, HIP-HOP, PARTY BREAKS, and REGGAE bangers from 2011 plus a number of unbelievably hot exclusives and rarities from the likes of BADBOE & PROSPER, THE FUNK LEAGUE feat. DIAMOND D & SADAT X, KRASH SLAUGHTA, TOTALCULT, PULPFUSION and RENEGADES OF JAZZ. You can cop each and every track in its entirety in DJ-READY 320 KBPS format plus the artwork via…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

GMF feat. AKIL THE MC: Remixed! (2012)

2012-01-21T22:19:00.001Z

GMF feat. AKIL THE MC: Remixed! (2012)
“Do whatever feels good to you. It’s cool/ For you to do whatever you want to just do,” raps former Jurassic 5 member Akil The MC on the original Grand Mother’s Funck version of Do (video below) – with admirable laissez-faire as his and the band’s work is taken off by Badboe and various nu-funky friends. Perhaps surprisingly, the end result isn’t a six-track ‘loud-up the drums, wobble the bass until your speakers blow free-for-all.’…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

THE ELECTRIC SLIDESHOW SOUNDSYSTEM: Resense 025 (2012)

2012-01-21T18:37:00.002Z

THE ELECTRIC SLIDESHOW SOUNDSYSTEM: Resense 025 (2012)
[RATING:5]
Meet The Electric Slideshow Soundsystem a.k.a Don Rogall and Earl Zinger. Their minds are clearly awash with crazy notions that the sound which today’s discerning clubber is after is a brew of jazz, sixties rnb, and latin music with big beat production and a vocalist who sounds like a cross between that bloke from Yello and Ronnie Wood. And they might just be right. Give Me Your Number is a shimmying psychedelic bounce over which Zinger’s refrain is delivered with a exactly the balance of desperation and menace of an aging sex pest…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BADBOE & BASEMENT FREAKS: Bombastic Collabs Jam 01 (2012)

2012-01-21T16:54:00.002Z

BADBOE & BASEMENT FREAKS: Bombastic Collabs Jam 01 (2012)
Two of the biggest and most influential names on the party breaks/ ghetto funk scene get together to kick off a new series of hook-ups on the Bombastic Jam label – Bombastic Collabs, as Badboe and Basement Freaks pull a couple of mid-tempo grooves out of their respective bags of beats. And groove really is the word (considering where the ghetto funk sound has been of late) for both tracks focus seem geared to encourage proper dancing rather than jumping up and down and batting the next person on the head with a fucking glowstick…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BAKER BROTHERS: Snap Back EP (2012) video

2012-01-21T15:57:00.002Z

BAKER BROTHERS: Snap Back EP (2012) video
Funk-jazzbos The Baker Brothers drop Snap Back off their Time To Testify album and as I’ve been a bit busy recently I passed it over to the monkeyboxing staff for some soundbites. Monkeyboxing taxi driver ‘Jazzy’ Dave thought it was, “a superb evocation of funk’s golden era of the early nineties – Icognito, Brand New Heavies and all that. Tip top,” while MB’s bike courier/BMX bandit…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

COCKNEY NUTJOB: Fine Young Cockney (2012) Free download

2012-01-18T21:16:00.001Z

COCKNEY NUTJOB: Fine Young Cockney (2012) Free download
This week’s ‘Captain Scott of breaks award’ goes to Cockney Nutjob who proudly spliced She Drives Me Crazy by eighties soul-pop trio Fine Young Cannibals with the Jigga’s 99 Problems only to have me cheerfully crush his sense of achievement by pointing out to him that DJ ‘Amundsen’ Angelo had got there a year before him. You can imagine the frustration. Still, at least he hasn’t died in the fucking ice…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

JARIBU AFROBEAT ARKESTRA: Mediacracy (2012) + video + tracklist

2012-01-18T20:42:00.001Z

JARIBU AFROBEAT ARKESTRA: Mediacracy (2012) + video + tracklist
Japan’s hard-gigging Jaribu Afrobeat Arkestra (not to be confused with Leeds, UK-based Ariya Afrobeat Arkestra) have got a new album out and it’s called Mediacracy. It’s a slightly unfortunate name because with a Yank accent that could end up sounding like ‘mediocrity’ rather than a neologism presumably intended to be a comment on our media-obsessed culture. And that’s unfortunate because those in the know…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DIRTY DUBSTERS feat. SCREECHY DAN & WHANDAH THE DAINTY QUEEN: Oh No (2012) + video

2012-01-17T21:55:00.002Z

DIRTY DUBSTERS feat. SCREECHY DAN & WHANDAH THE DAINTY QUEEN: Oh No (2012) + video
RATING: 5/5
Oh No? ‘Oh yes’ more like! This has been threatening to drop since back in the summer and I for one am grateful the wait is over. Essentially Dublin’s bass-iest, Dirty Dubsters (along with sometime collaborators – old school NY toaster Screechy Dan and dancehall chanteuse Whandah The Dainty Queen), rework elements of a rather well-known reggae classic into something of seismic proportions. …READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

DJ FORMAT: New LP ‘Statement Of Intent’ due March (2012) + promo video

2012-01-17T20:23:00.003Z

DJ FORMAT: New LP ‘Statement Of Intent’ due March (2012) + promo video
DJ Format’s back hurrah! And it doesn’t look like he’s going to be taking any prisoners with his first full length LP since 2005’s If You Can’t Join ‘Em…Beat ‘Em. How long!? Yeah, I know - tell me about it. Statement Of Intent is due for a March release and looks all set to feature the usual fat-funky boom-bap business (plus a bit of breaks and electro) with guest turns from underground fire-spitter Sureshot La Rock (who appeared on Format’s Mr DJ EP last year, ‘core Bostonian emcee Mr Lif, and a brace of legendary rappers nearly as famous for their absences from the scene as they are for their actual output: newly-defrosted-from-cryogenic-storage-in-the-eighties Phill Most Chill and professional ‘difficult’-third-album-dodger Edan. Plus…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

STEELY CHAN: Mos World (2012) – Free download

2012-01-14T19:51:00.001Z

STEELY CHAN: Mos World (2012) – Free download
The crazy prolific Steely Chan’s hip-hop/ funk blender gets into full-length action here positioning yet another legendary MC from back in the day atop fat funky beats – in this case Mos Def over music culled from latterday soul king Lee Fields in the form of Mos World which you can cop below. You can blame Dangermouse for kicking this kind of practice off all those years ago with the Grey Album but who’s complaining when…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

JOHN ALLISON: Good So Bad (2012)

2012-01-12T21:46:00.001Z

JOHN ALLISON: Good So Bad (2012)
Anyone who caught the T Bird & The Breaks storming second LP Never Get Out Of This Funk Alive will know it isn’t just gravel-vocalled T Bird who sings in the band. Aside from a roster of backing singers that includes soul queen in waiting Sasha Ortiz, guitarist Johnny ‘Too Bad’ Allison also stepped up to the mic for album track Paranoia For Ya and rocked a Rare Earth/ James Gang style vocal. That’s a mega-lengthy preamble…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

GHETTO FUNK presents ALLSTAR 45s: Funk Ferret, Goodgroove & DJ Soo (2012)

2012-01-06T21:48:00.002Z

GHETTO FUNK presents ALLSTAR 45s: Funk Ferret, Goodgroove & DJ Soo (2012)
It’s fragile, it’s technologically anachronistic and you don’t want to be leaving it in the sun…but you can’t beat the sound. Vinyl’s the shit isn’t it? So here’s to Ghetto Funk– a label which pioneers the bleeding edge of the funk continuum but hasn’t forgotten the feel and sound of wax. This is the second in their Allstar 45s series and sees two of hip hop’s earliest classics get a thorough ghetto funk contemporization. That’ll be…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MORLACK – Try It Again (2012) Free download

2012-01-05T22:13:00.003Z

MORLACK – Try It Again (2012) Free download
[RATING: 5/5]
Good God almighty - his album Where Do You Get Your Funk From was only out two weeks ago and here’s funky Frenchman Morlack again already with a superbly chunky booty version of Bobby Byrd’s funk nugget Try It Again…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CONFIGA feat. JOHN GRAHAM: ‘Back 2 Basics’ (2012)

2012-01-04T21:37:00.001Z

CONFIGA feat. JOHN GRAHAM: ‘Back 2 Basics’ (2012)
This week’s ‘most like BDP hip-hop throwback single’ slot is filled by a video for the John Graham featuring Back 2 Basics off Configa’s Calm Before The Storm mixtape. So anyone who’s into the “90s Euro-house-plus-shit rapper or faded old has-been emcee” that passes for mainstream hip-hop these days should pass right along. On the other hand, anyone who wants crisp, minimal, boom-bap dope, will need to…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

HARDLY SUBTLE: Hardly Subtle EP 2 (2012)

2012-01-03T23:02:00.003Z

HARDLY SUBTLE: Hardly Subtle EP 2 (2012)
[RATING: 5/5]
The New Year’s mere days old and those cheeky West Country bad boyz Hardly Subtle (a.k.a. Aldo Vanucci and Dave Remix) are already getting their Joe Cockers out for Pharoahe Monch on this, exposing their Family Stones to LL Cool J and doing things to Etta James that she never dreamed of when she released Something’s Got A Hold On Me in 1962. Mash-up city! It’s hardly subtle is it? Fuck subtle! Let’s…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BROTHER ALI: Writer’s Block (prod. Jake One) (2012) video + free download

2012-01-03T22:22:00.001Z

BROTHER ALI: Writer’s Block (prod. Jake One) (2012) video + free download
We’ve all been there, no matter how hard you strain, nothing comes out. Yep – writer’s block is a bastard. Thankfully, the jewel in the Rhymesayers label’s crown, Brother Ali finally managed to gain relief by writing about the ingenious means of writing about the fact that he couldn’t think of anything to write about. And it wouldn’t be the first time in hip-hop that lyrical constipation has
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

FLATLINE feat. WERD2JAH: Slow Down (2012)

2012-01-03T21:56:00.001Z

FLATLINE feat. WERD2JAH: Slow Down (2012)
Flatline are another signing to Dirty Dubsters’ Irish Moss label, and on Slow Down they deliver a bassline with enough clout to terminate the beating of hearts in any ribcages not protected by the safety cushion of spongy, tarry lungs cultivated through years of ganja abuse. Not to be outdone
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

SAVANT feat. CHARITY CLAY & DJ J20: Soul Music (2012) Free download

2012-01-03T21:55:00.002Z

SAVANT feat. CHARITY CLAY & DJ J20: Soul Music (2012) Free download
It’s the penultimate cut from emcee Savant’s Crash Course: Leak Series and Soul Music finds our man paying tribute to his chosen medium. And I don’t mean he’s come over all Aloe Blacc and ditched the raps. (Out ---)
…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

CHART - January 2012

2012-01-01T22:05:00.001Z

CHART - January 2012
(NEW) 1. The Milk – B-Roads

Big whiteboy soul/ hip-hop crossover ting…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

JACK HAMMER/ JUSTIN: ‘Swim’/ ‘Right Now’ seven inch (2012)

2012-01-01T15:44:00.002Z

JACK HAMMER/ JUSTIN: ‘Swim’/ ‘Right Now’ seven inch (2012)
[RATING: 5]
Hee-ooge double slice of sixties soul here re-pressed in time for my first gig of the new year. A-side club classic Swim by Jack Hammer has been listed in some places as being by ‘Jan’ Hammer but despite the Miami Vice theme man having had a shady past in prog-jazz-funk fusioneers The Mahavishnu Orchestra he’s not responsible for this super raw slice of funky action.…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

MORLACK: Where Do You Get Your Funk From (2011) + Free downloads

2011-12-29T18:55:00.004Z

MORLACK: Where Do You Get Your Funk From (2011) + Free downloads
I like Morlack’s release titles. Last time he was ‘taking it to the zulu’ - this time he wants to know where we get our funk from. Er – hang on Morlack – I’ll do the questions – where do you get yours from? Your cover would suggest Betty Davis with bigger guns…what’s that? Seventies P-funk - uh-huh - Tone Loc, yup, The Red Hot Chili Peppers – I see and…INXS. Really? Oh, I get you…guilty pleasures and all that. And then you beef up the rhythm section in a twenty-first century party breaks stylee…? Well, that all seems to hang together rather well my friend. Thus it is that…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM

BOX ROCKET: Avalanche Psychiatrist (2011) Free download

2011-12-22T21:24:00.002Z

BOX ROCKET: Avalanche Psychiatrist (2011) Free download
Long before Frape, happy-slapping and shanking innocent passersby, the box rocket (along with sniffing glue and a gentle game of British bulldog) was one of many forms of more innocent youth entertainment. Oh wait – that was a pocket rocket wasn’t it. Still, you wouldn’t want to call your mid-tempo breaks project ‘pocket rocket’ nowadays though (if you were Ewan Hoozami and Dave Remix - as indeed Box Rocket are) since a quick google reveals this to be a contemporary form of battery-powered lady entertainment. Mind you, ‘box rocket’ can hardly be described as a safe handle in 2011 either as…READ FULL POST @ MONKEYBOXING.COM