Back catalogue: Funk

Review: Soundway Records deliver a new compilation, delving deep into the many obscure and experimental disco cuts laid to record in 70s and 80s Southeast Asia. Here Soundway's longtime general manager Alice Whittington (aka. DJ Norsicaa) steps into the limelight, embracing her Malaysian heritage and selecting music from her heavy collection of Asian records. Taking its namesake from the Indonesian phrase for "let's go to the disco", Ayo Ke Disco spans ten rare slices of disco-funk, psychedelic funk, synth, city pop and Hindustani-Arabic rhythms, all painstaking licensed from the local labels whose efforts still often persist some forty years on.

Review: Strut's definitive vinyl edition of Nigeria 70 brings fresh vitality to a landmark compilation first released in 2001. This collection, renowned for its role in popularizing 1970s Lagos music, remains a vital exploration of Afro funk and Afro jazz, showcasing a vibrant cross-section of Nigerian music that extends beyond Fela Kuti's legacy. The reissue offers a rich tapestry of sounds that captured Nigeria's dynamic musical landscape. Starting with Monomono's 'Loma Da Nigbehin,' the album dives into deep, rhythmically complex Afrobeat grooves. Fela Kuti's iconic tracks 'Upside Down' and 'Jeun Ko Ku (Chop 'n' Quench)' highlight the revolutionary funk that defined the era, while Tony Allen's 'No Discrimination' from 1980 exemplifies the genre's evolving sophistication. The compilation's strength lies in its diversity. Tracks like Ofo & the Black Company's 'Allah Wakbarr' and BLO's 'Chant to Mother Earth' introduce psychedelic rock influences, while Joni Haastrup's 'Greetings' and Shina Williams & His African Percussionists' 'Agboju Logun' infuse disco and electro-funk elements into the Afrobeat foundation. William Onyeabor's 'Better Change Your Mind' offers a glimpse into how Nigerian artists engaged with global funk and synthesiser sounds. Nigeria 70 is a great example to the innovative spirit of Nigerian music in the 1970s, reflecting a rich interplay of local and global influences.

Review: Back in 2005, the Luaka Bop and Stones Throw labels jointly issued World Psychedelic Classics 3: Love's A Real Thing - The Funky Fuzzy Sounds Of West Africa with the former releasing the CD edition and the latter a double LP version. As the elongated title suggests, the third edition of Luaka Bop's World Psychedelic Classic series swung the focus to West African music from the seventies and really opened people up to the psychedelic sounds of Manu Dibango, William Onyeabor, Gasper Lawal and a whole other host of artists from West Africa. Luaka Bop have evidently secured the rights for a vinyl reissue of the compilation, and anyone who indulged in their popular fifth volume focused on William Onyeabor will relish the opportunity to pick this up again.

Review: Four Flies continue their mission to plunge Italy's funk-historical depths. The pinnacle of their search so far for the sure-to-exist pearly gems on the sands thereunder is the new Africamore compilation, which homes in like a heat-seeking torpedo on the particular Afro- ends of the funk sound prevalent in the nation, in the crucial years between 1973 and 1978. This period was notable for its facilitating fertile ground for the emerging discotheque market in Italy at the time. From psychedelic-tinged tunes like Jean Paul & Angelique's 'Africa Sound' to Afrobeat-esque club banger 'Kumbayero' by Albert Verrecchia; from groundbreaking Afro-cosmics like Chrisma's 'Amore to mind-blowing floor-fillers like Beryl Cunningham's 'Why O', this is a multivalent compilation, among the best out there to document the burblings of that crosswise stew of disco, funk, electro and world musics.

Review: Back in 2014, Here & Now Records released a sampler for an as-yet unfounded Leeds-based label called ATA Records. The compilation featured "rare soul, funk and Afro" tracks from friends and regular bandmates Neil Innes and Pete Williams under a variety of pseudonyms. ATA emerged a year later, so to celebrate the label's imminent fifth birthday, ATA chiefs Innes and Williams have decided to reissue the compilation under a tweaked title. There's much to enjoy throughout, from the sweaty, James Brown-inspired "The Flip" and the breezy, easy listening-influenced soul shuffle of "Brother Move On", to the deep funk hustle of "Cookie Jar" and the Mod-style soundtrack slowness of "Moscow Central".

Review: There could have been no better way to escape the Soviet than through the music of the Groove of ESSR compilation series which now returns with a second volume. This time Funk Embassy serves up 11 cuts from between 1973 and 1984 and they are a mix of dance floor-ready sounds and more pensive material for somewhere else. Most of these tunes are getting their first-ever release here and the 12" comes with a 30-page booklet featuring some great background as well as thoughts from some of the artists. The likes of likes Gilles Peterson and DJ Tahira played tunes from the first one which tells you how good this series is.