Rating: NNNNN
Glasgow grooves
Scotland isn’t generally considered a nu-funk hot spot, but Glasgow’s new Defunkt label is dead set on making it one. Their opening 7-inch salvo is an explosive cover of the Gus The Groove Lewis getdown Let The Groove Move You by Hammond heavies the Boogaloo Investigators. A harp-honking rip on James Brown’s I Got The Feelin’ makes for a stellar two-sider. It’s limited and already changing hands for ridiculous money, so grab it before it’s gone.
Listen to the Grapevine
Anyone searching for the original version of the Gus Lewis mover can find it along with loads of other dance-floor delights from New Orleans and beyond on the UK Grapevine label’s Crescent City Funk comp disc. Don’t be put off by the woefully generic packaging. Compiler Garry J. Cape has come up with the goods, namely Al Trahan’s Can I Feel It, and its precursor, Funky Lu, the Backyard Heavies’ Chitlin Strut and the Fantoms’ outrageous Junk.
Deep soul fans should note that Grapevine just released a fabulous collection of songwriter George Jackson’s demos, George Jackson In Muscle Shoals, recorded in the late 70s with Jimmy Johnson, David Hood and Roger Hawkins. Best known as the composer of Z.Z. Hill’s classic Down Home Blues, Jackson is also behind the Osmonds’ One Bad Apple and Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock And Roll, but he’s at his best singing his own material, like Messin’ With My Mind and Cheatin’ In The Next Room. www.grapevine2000.co.uk
Bristol fashion
While triphop torch singer Beth Gibbons was off collaborating with Rustin Man, aka Talk Talk’s Paul Webb on the Out Of Season disc, her Portishead mate Geoff Barrow was busy at home in Bristol DJing at the fortnightly Espionage parties. To have something cool to put in his record box, Barrow cut a wah-wah-whipped version of the b-boy classic Apache under the alias the Jimi Entley Sound. Espionage Disk’s first run on pink vinyl sold out in seconds, and the second pressing of 300 — backed with the soundtracky downtempo Charlie’s Theme — will likely do the same.
The Breakin’ Bread label, spawned by the popular funk and breaks club night of the same name, follows up the Color Climax crew’s Jellyfish Popcorn joint with the cracking crustaceous shaker Crabwalk b/w Batidas Latinas. And anyone who missed the Do Right! label’s 7-inch issue of Speedometer’s Wait Up from the Funk For The 21st Century comp should look for the Kennel Klub pressing, which comes with the added bonus of the floor-quaking Foot and Mouth on the backside. There’s only 500, so don’t sleep.
