Get your booty on the floor tonight? Not likely you’re gonna be making anyone’s day any time soon, unfortunately. But that don’t stop the booty and below is a few of my favourite ghetto / booty flavoured releases of the last x amount of months (time is immaterial at this stage, after all). Also a bit of update on some Wah Wah Wino related material, and archives of my latest Feathers Glued To Your Face show on Dublin Digital Radio, this month being a Luke Slater special
Detroit’s Filthiest – Original Not Crispy (Casa Voyager)
Originally starting the Filthiest project with a series of digi releases, Detroit’s Dj Nasty has had a prolific few years with the highlights for me being the releases on the Moroccan imprint, Casa Voyager. Original not Crispy is a double pack of pristine electro funk & ghetto tech with a hint of jungle thrown in for good measure. At times sublime, and at other times pretty goofy (in the best way) Nasty’s productions are the benchmark for where the sound is at, never mind the likes of Partyboi 69 who seems intent on presenting the form as a walking meme.
The opener “Hands Behind Your Back” seems to be a reference to the behaviour of the police in a rare moment of ghetto taking a more serious form lyrically than usual, but that could also be me projecting due to the ongoing tensions with the police in America. On the other hand the double pack also serves up Hot Cheetos, with the hilarious “I got dem chips baby, You got dat dip baby” refrain followed by a list of various types of crisps (chips for our American readers). The low-slung bass, whistling melody and silly vocal refrains is straight up classic Detroit ghetto business.
“Blaxploitation” meshes jungle-ish tempos and breaks with wonderful string samples from an old soul song (I’m guessing) whilst Undefeated again has nods to jungle with its breakbeats and stabbing bass riff. Let ‘Em Burn is the most direct electro cut on the release and also one of my favourites before the pack closes on the wonderful hi-tempo funk / soul of Late Night Soiree. Ghetto booty music direct from the source.
Gary Gritness – Rollin’ Zebras (Casa Voyager)
Mr Gritness from parts unknown (I thiink, France?) also serves up a killer slice of booty-inflected bizness on Casa Voyager with the 5 track Rollin’ Zebras. Funk is the cornerstone of all the cuts on here, ranging from the hi-tempo skipping grooves of Can’t Talk to more relaxed fare such as Honey Drippin’ & opener Fake. While a lot of electro-funk / booty gear over the years has relied on sampling (indeed, some samples used over and over again) Gritness really knows how to play (I can attest to this after seeing him play live a few years back where his key playing was pretty incredible) and he always has a deftness of touch in how he puts together his music, with it always having an effortless flow; it all seems to easy. The slap-bass funk of Can’t Talk is my pick from a 12″ that never puts a foot wrong.
ReQuest – Deeper Visions (WeMe Records)
Deeper Visions is the 3rd outing from ReQuest on Belgium’s excellent WéMé Records. Compared with the releases above this takes it’s cues more directly from electro, notably that from the 313. Electro is in a funny place at the moment, after what seemed like years of being ignored the last 2 or 3 years has seen a resurgence in the sound, but I find many new releases to be lacking. Faaaar too many rely on the same sounds that flooded the music in the late 90s / early 00s, a lot of which already took their cues from the revolutionary sounds of Stinson & Donald. ReQuest could be accused of doing the same at times but they also understand how important funk was to the works of Drexciya and imbue their sound with these influences.
Reef Pilgrim has the bounce, flow & BPM of booty matched with glacial melodies that offset the drama of the drums and bass. South Bay Convey works in a similar manner (if at a slower pace), combined with that classic modern electro staple, a kinda mumbling Juan Atkins-esque vocal refrain. Coral Hive (State of Translucency) and Wavesense offer up slightly slower tempos but the same insistent funk, again nodding the head to Stinson & Donald with the weirdo efx vox. Electro in 2020 sure could do with some more fresh ideas but ReQuest has the decency to make sure the music has a swing to it.
Kolida Babo – Exodus (Remixes) (MIC)
I’m going waaay back to the beginning 0f 2020 and waaay down in the BPMs with this remix 12″ of Greek avant-garde duo Kolida Babo. Actually the 12″ starts at a relatively high tempo with UK producer Coby Sey’s skipping, funky version that keeps a quirky edge while also being dance-floor ready. Who’s the Technician?, one of the many aliases from the Wah Wah Wino camp, reduce the BPM for their 2 versions, which takes the central riff and weirds it out to match the slow tempo electro drums, giving it an unsettling and drugged out feeling, in the best possible way. The record closes out on a dub version of the Who’s The Technician? version, sending it further into the depths. Excellently odd.
Natural Wild – Hot and Sexable (All City / Allchival)
The amusingly titled Hot and Sexable was originally given a new lease of life on the All City compilation Quare Groove Vol.1 a couple of years ago, which I wrote a about here. Natural Wild only ever released two singles in the mid 80s, neither of which made a mark at the time, but Hot and Sexable as a real loose charm to it, the sort of 80s funk that would have been a little known gem for those “selector” types to unearth if they’d ever thought of digging deep into obscure 80s Irish dance 12″s (as if). Morgan Buckley from Wah Wah Wino has been tasked with remixing it, delivering 3 different versions, Cheap Organ, Rock and Compressor.
Cheap Organ is probably my favourite version, taking away the drums and giving the bass an element of Giorgio Moroder’s The Chase, with a single cowbell driving the rhythm along. It’s a great example of tension and release without ever fully giving in, giving a smart Dj lots to play with. All you need is a great bass-line and little else to keep the funk going. The Compressor version pretty much dubs the instrumentation to a trippy sparseness leaving the vocals to float over the reduced and at times distorted drums.
The Rock version is more abrasive and takes the song in an unlikely direction but also keeping its 80s edge with a modern, electronic sheen layered on cut up, post punk stylings, that never stays still for more than a few bars. It’s a whole lot of fun, as is the whole 12″.
Feathers Glued To Your Face, Bringing Firepower – Luke Slater Special
For this month’s show on DDR myself and Shane devoted much of it to the music of Luke Slater, who has made a lot of our favourite techno records over the last 25+ years. Prior to that on the show we include new music from Lerosa, Serial Error and Lee Kelly. Full trackist is below…
Planetary Assault Systems – Shaken