| Home | Reviews | News | Features | Listings | HeavyRotation | Links | Contributors | Contact | About | EmailUpdates |
 London and NYC Club and Concert Listings | Album Review: V/A - Future World Funk: On The Run (Beleza) With their fourth compilation (the first on Ether’s new subsidiary label Beleza) DJ team Future World Funk (Russ Jones and Richard Clifford aka DJ Cliffy) carry on the grand tradition with a distinctly Y2K, post-House Generation twist. The selections include vocals from Budapest to Bengal and from Abidjan to Jamaica, but the beats are user-friendly to the most timid of clubbers, with ragga and drum n bass both figuring strongly, and rightly so. Highlights include Jah Screechie’s twisted crunk-ragga (Walk And Skank), DJ Bruno E’s collage-homage to North-East Brazil’s greatest swinger Jackson Do Pandeiro (as blueprinted by A Banda De Pifanos De Caruaru) and Abidjan’s Magic Systeme afroparty evergreen Le Premier Gaou. In the club world, a strong brand is essential, and Future World Funk have that in spades. Despite years of eclecticism and the untiring efforts of radio DJs like Mike Raven, Alexis Korner, John Peel, and Charlie Gillett, we still have a punter-majority who have a problem with anything not in English (for God’s sake, who cares what the lyrics mean?). Enjoy the sound of the human voice simply as another instrument, or go buy a book if it’s words you need). Russ and Cliffy have neatly sidestepped that conundrum by presenting collections of unfamiliar music in familiar clothing. Long may they prosper. RELATED LINKS: To send us music for potential inclusion, email us at promos@knowtheledge.net EMAIL UPDATES! Do you want to receive Know The Ledge update emails? Click here to sign up!
|
If there’s one thing we Brits have always done better than others in the club-music field, it’s Eclecticism. Those with long memories (and longer teeth) will remember magic all-nighters in the mid-60s at the Scene Club in Soho with the legendary Guy Stevens playing blues, ska, soul, Motown, black rock & roll and mod in any order; the late 70s saw the Trinidadian DJ Weasel rocking Ladbroke Grove with a mix of reggae, soca, salsa and more, whilst Greek Street’s Beat Route had the original one-night promoters Ollie & Steve, encouraging DJ Pete Lewis to programme every damn thing they could, from Fela Kuti to Wham. Across the road in Meard Street, Gaz Mayall was doing the same thing (and still is today!) with ska, bluebeat, jump-jive and vintage R&B. Up in 70s Manchester, the Berlin Club was one of the first to play dodgy bossas imported direct from Brazil, an element that was to form a vital part of London’s early-80s jazzdance scene, starting from Paul Murphy and (later) Gilles Peterson’s Electric Ballroom sessions. The early 80s saw Dave Hucker start his Sol Y Sombra Tuesdays – soul, soca, soukous, salsa, R&B, reggae, you name it – with Yours Truly doing something similar at Hoxton Square’s Bass Clef and the Mambo Inn posse (especially Gerry Lyseight in the basement room) likewise. We didn’t call it World Music (ugh!) back then: the tune either rocked, or it didn’t.
::: RELATED LINKS
Future World Funk - official website
Buy Future World Funk at Amazon UK (CD) / US(CD)
More Reviews