Funk Soul Classic

When the late, great James Brown (God rest his funky soul) gave us 'It's a Man's Man's World' over 50 years ago, the musical declaration went further than the lyrical content – funk was man's music. Brown's funk was pure soul but with hard, aggressive rhythms that did away with much of the sentimentality and sweet flourishes of the more orthodox soul sound at that time. However, when Brown added to those lyrics the one crucial caveat, 'it would be nothing, without a woman or a girl' he was leaving the door open for many a female vocalist to lay down a heartfelt, feminine and soulful cry. And when female vocals are backed up with tough, syncopated and funky rhythms, a bewitching, intoxicating and irresistible brew is created.

Strut Records present the first definitive retrospective of an icon of 1970s and 80s soul, jazz and disco, Patrice Rushen, covering her peerless 6-year career with Elektra/Asylum from 1978 to 1984.

2013 compilation, an installment in the popular Backbeats series that explores different aspects of the Soul/Dance/Black music scenes and covers such diverse areas as New York Disco, Southern Deep Soul, 70's Detroit, 70's Funk, Philly Classics, 60's and 70's Soul Anthems, 80's New York House, 70's and 80's Rare Groove, Southern Crossover Soul and Soulful Jazz-Funk.

Releasing his first five albums in three years, funk pioneer James Brown was busy earning his title as the Hardest Working Man in Show Business right from the get-go. Collected in the four-disc set Five Classic Albums Plus, those five albums, Please Please Please (1959), Try Me! (1959), Think! (1960), The Amazing James Brown (1961), and James Brown Presents His Band (1961) take listeners on an amazing, rhythm-filled romp through the singer’s early days and commercial breakthrough with his band, the Famous Flames.

Soul Clap step up to the fabric compilation series with an eclectic selection to loosen up the dancefloor. With a style that’s distinctively their own, they carve hip hop, funk, soul and disco into a modern house music sound. The Boston raised and NYC based DJ and production duo reach a decade of releases in 2017 and fabric 93 takes the baton from 2016's self-titled artist album and their 2015 EP with seminal funk legend George Clinton.

38 tracks compilation of classic funk and funky soul cuts spread across a broad stylistic spread. So many highlights with a mix of well known gems like Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘The Bottle’, Linda Clifford’s ‘Runaway Love’, Joe Quarterman’s ‘I Got So Much Trouble…’ and Leroy Hutson’s ‘Lucky Fellow’ to maybe lesser known cuts like the Continental Showstopper’s funky Northern ‘Not Too Young’ Alvin Cash’s frenetic ‘Keep On Dancin’ and Jodi Gayles’ sassy ‘You Gotta Push’. Good, solid comp of well produced funky soul.

Ladies and gentleman - Volume 5 of my Funk & Soul Club compilations is something of a milestone - so let me take you through just some of the highlights in my latest trunk of funk which also includes some 100% exclusive tracks not available anywhere else!. The Traffic have a knack of rendering well known sounds into a re-grooved grooves - and their contribution is a crispy, deep fried instrumental version of the Rick James classic Super Freak! The Andy Tolman Cartel make musical time travel a reality - because when I'm listening to You What!

With the recent spate of reissue compilations and various-artists releases compiling years of lost funk 45s, it's easy to get lost in the mix and tough to differentiate what is considered a lost classic and what isn't. Playersoul takes out much of the guessing and crate-digging legwork by providing a blueprint to early funk classics that gave impetus to many of hip-hop's golden age anthems. You can literally play "name the song that sampled this" with nearly every track included here.

A brilliant concept from BBE - compiling the best modern funk rather than delving deep into increasingly bare archives. Mark Webster has come up trumps with this 20-track set featuring all manner of funky business from Sasso, Smith & Mudd and The James Taylor Quartet. Fans of the old-school will love Kova & Miles' soulful nu-jazz version of The Meters classic "Handclappin' Song" and Speedometer's take on Eddie Bo's "Love And A Friend", while psych-rock fans should make a beeline for The Chiswick Reach All-Stars' excellent "Nutsin". With more covers, such as Sunlightsquare Latin Combo's excellent version of "I Believe In Miracles" included, this is simply a must for funk fans.