Funk

Janelle Monae returns with the Prince-esque jam ‘Make Me Feel’

New album and film Dirty Computer is out on April 27th.

Not long ago when Prince was still of this earth, Janelle Monae performed at an awards show in front of the Purple one and won his attention for her outstanding performance. Prince would go onto to feature on a track from Monae’s 2013 Electric Lady album and become a bit of a mentor. For the… Read more »

Posted on February 22nd, 2018

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Onra returns to vintage funk sounds on new All-City album about the “passion of attraction”

Nobody Has To Know is out Feb 16th.

Onra follows up the third release in his Chinoseries, with a return to his roots of “future funk,” as heard on the 2010 album Long Distance. That album’s late ’80s shimmering synths and New Jack Swing and & ’80s R&B influences return on Nobody Has To Know , his newest album which gets a release… Read more »

Posted on January 15th, 2018

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Awesome Tapes From Africa to release South African disco pop LP from Umoja

Watch the video with the musician in a silver suit and a teacher-student fantasy.

Awesome Tapes From Africa’s newest release has a disco pop persuasion and comes from 1988 via the artist Alec Khaoli aka Umoja. His four-track release 707 comes out May 19th on the label. It was initially released in 1988. Starting in 1982, Umoja recorded a succession of hugely successful recordings that reached a crescendo with… Read more »

Posted on May 2nd, 2017

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Hear Kendrick Lamar guest on Thundercat’s ‘Walk On By’

Languid funk with urgency at the track's end.

Thundercat’s Drunk album arrives on Friday and everything we’ve heard from it has a falsetto-lead yacht rock funk vibe to it. Even this track, the long-awaited collaboration between Kendrick Lamar on Thundercat’s own turf, Kendrick grabs the mic on a languid rhythm and adds some urgency and turns it into a song that sounds like… Read more »

Posted on February 22nd, 2017

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A new Dublin edits label Orange Tree is dropping its first release

Afro funk and house vibes for the dancefloor.

Underneath The Orange Tree present a new Dublin label focusing on edits drops its first release on February 17th. The Orange Tree Edits white label’s first release is from Jimmy Rouge and both tracks are Afrobeat edits. ‘Pembe’ is muscular bass house-tinged Afro funk while ‘Fo Ya’ is brushed up funk and afro disco. Underneath… Read more »

Posted on January 19th, 2017

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Premiere: Toofools deliver glittering disco-funk & soul on ‘Touch’

The new Dublin band recall Jungle on new single.

In a short time, TooFools, a band brought to us by Lorcan O’Dwyer, Steven McCann and their big gang of friends have made a splash on the Dublin music landscape. They introduced themselves with a live video by Christian Tierney of Insanity. Now, nearly a year later and with much live experience under their belts,… Read more »

Posted on November 3rd, 2016

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Kappekoff’s ‘All Day Long’ is a burst of light

You may have heard this tune on my New Music Spotify playlist this past week. From Norway, Kappekoff’s ‘All Day Long’ is a strutting dreamy electronic pop track with funk bass and retro synth action. The band are Rasmus Thallaug & Magnus Falkenberg, augmented by Vebjørn Moen & Jørgen Apeness live. The band are signed… Read more »

Posted on April 14th, 2016

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Rocstrong rocks an ode to his deceased friend on ‘Block Party (Kaiser)’

Rocstrong arrived on the Irish scene with a swaggering funk rock sound that soon bagged his songs placements in ads for Lidl and trailers for the Coen Brothers movie Hail, Caesar!. Now, Congolese-born Dubliner Andre J.P Bangala is back with some new music. ‘Block Party (Kaiser)’ is a song that on the surface sounds like… Read more »

Posted on April 5th, 2016

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Bibio announces new album & brings the smudged funk on ‘Feeling’

Stephen Wilkinson, who makes music under the name Bibio, has long had a place in my musical heart for his endeavours. His 2009 Ambulance Avenue album is one I constantly return to. As happens with artists and fans, we drifted apart a bit but I always found something to like on each successive album. Recently,… Read more »

Posted on January 21st, 2016

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Album of the week: !!! – As If

!!! (the world’s only Google-proof band name actually pronounced as Chk Chk Chk) are real outliers of American independent music. They never really fit into any real scene, they were associated with the rise of New York music at the peak of DFA and LCD Soundsystem but they’re from California and their members live all over… Read more »

Posted on October 23rd, 2015

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Niwel Tsumbu with Loah, Feather, Manden Express and Ensemble Ériu are RiZA

Niwel Tsumbu is a Congolese guitarist who is frequently heard and seen beside and behind others. For his new project, RiZA, the artist draws on his strong musical family for a debut album due in October with songs written in a Congolese tongue Lingala based on his personal revelation that his 14 year-old son isn’t… Read more »

Posted on May 19th, 2015

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Rocstrong – ‘Hold Ya’

Andre J.P Bangala is back with another slice of funky rock music from his Rocstrong music project. This one harks back to the Congo-born Dubliner’s debut ‘Go Head’. ‘Hold Ya’ is further proof of a developing new Irish talent. Hear also: Limits. You can catch Rocstrong at Forbidden Fruit.

Posted on May 11th, 2015

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