Five years ago, Michael Cavanagh, long-time percussion expert for psych-rock powerhouse King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, made his solo debut under the CAVS moniker with a self-titled effort.
The ten-song drums-only effort was an exercise in the drummer’s ability to capture a listener’s attention with exclusively drum patterns, resulting in a groovy, atmospheric effort that ultimately didn’t catapult CAVS into the solo spotlight like similar artists of his ilk. The difficult transition from band member to lone musician is a bumpy, often misdirected endeavor that rarely seems to go well for the artist who dares undertake it. Still, in traditional Lizard Wizard fashion, Cavanagh wasn’t discouraged with the difficulties of his debut, but inspired.
Category: funk
In overseeing Club d’Elf since its inception over 25 years ago, founder-leader-bassist Mike Rivard has maintained a core lineup around which has revolved a colorful cast of collaborators as eclectic as the music they have played.
Loon & Thrush is no exception, yet its creation took place in the shadow of the passing of vocalist- multi-instrumentalist Brahim Frigbaine, not just an artistic contributor, but a practical point of reference for the group’s exotic pursuits. Much as Rivard collected himself to rally in the wake of serious illness prior to the gestation of the preceding Club d’Elf studio album, You Never Know (2022) so has he, with the customarily adventurous ensemble in tow, soldiered on in the wake of their departed comrade.
The satisfyin’ soul-pop group from the UK Mamas Gun are poised to follow up Cure The Jones with another collection that recalls what was great about American R&B in 60s and 70s. DIG! is their sixth studio long-player, featuring more of songs that take you back to the Motown, Philly Sound and Hi-Hat Memphis soul of the Impressions, Marvin Gaye, Spinners and Al Green, but with a contemporary vibrancy. It’s led by a gifted singer-songwriter and instrumentalist in Andy Platts (Young Gun Silver Fox) who has a limitless knack for hooks and blending vintage styles into a familiar but fresh approach.
Andy Platts’ got a gift for songcraft but even he get writer’s block sometimes. When he had the concept for a song mostly…
Khruangbin did not know if they were actually making an album. All they knew in the first frigid days of 2025, as they shivered in the Central Texas barn where they’ve recorded almost all of their music, was that the 10th anniversary of their debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You, was steadily approaching. Months earlier, they’d bandied about ways to mark the occasion, debating orchestral arrangements or compendiums of bonus materials and alternate takes. Thing was, back before Khruangbin helped establish a new modern idiom of semi-instrumental and gently psychedelic American music, there had been no bonus material, no unused songs. And how interesting would alternate takes or symphonic extravagance really be for a band whose aesthetic-essential vibes…
From joyful dancefloor productions to funky Afro-pop, reggae and gorgeously melancholic numbers, David Walters’ new album is an expansive affair. With a gang of guest producers including Captain Planet, Blundetto and Art of Tones onboard, the Franco-Caribbean multi-instrumentalist continues along the vein of his 2023 Soul Tropical album: a maximalist channeling of eclectic Afro-Caribbean themes, so brightly coloured that it often masks the personal burdens carried in his lyrics.
Always a great collaborator, Walters is joined by Fatoumata Diawara, Keziah Jones and Philo, who add their wonderful vocal talents to standout songs. However, the soul of the record remains Walters’ clear voice and guitar, the full-bodied production never obscuring how…
Six years to the date of his last LP, Thundercat release his fifth studio album, Distracted, coming out via Brainfeeder. The new album features contributions from A$AP Rocky, WILLOW, Tame Impala, Channel Tres, Lil Yachty and a previously unreleased collaboration with the dearly departed Mac Miller.
Distracted was primarily created in close collaboration with a new creative partner for Thundercat – the superproducer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with some of the biggest names in pop like Adele, Paul McCartney, Sia, Beyoncé, Beck and more – with additional production turns on the record from Flying Lotus, Kenny Beats (Kenneth Blume), and The Lemon Twigs. Distracted vividly captures…
Reverence for the organ trio tradition of 1970s soul jazz remains Parlor Greens’ guiding light on sophomore album Emeralds. The trio was founded when Tim Carman-whose heavy blues rock trio, GA-20, releases music through Colemine’s catch-all subsidiary Karma Chief-told Colemine founder Terry Cole about his aspirations for an organ trio after which Cole called up guitarist Jimmy James and organ player Adam Scone. James did a seven-year stint in the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, while Scone played an integral role in the late ’90s soul revival as a member of The Sugarman 3 and as a session player with Daptone. Not only had James and Scone played in organ trios in the past, but they’d previously collaborated on Brooklyn to Brooklin, the 2022 full-length…
Coming off two excellent records released on Habbi Funk that showed off his skills as a beatmaker, sample wrangler, song crafter and arranger, the Lebanese musician Charif Megarbane teamed with the Indonesian trio Ali to make a record. Tirakat is the result of the pairing and it’s brilliant. Organic, genre-bending, flowing and free, the album was recorded in three days’ time and feels like a well-curated journey through an amazing record collection. They jump all over the map, trip through time, and visit as many styles as possible, all with a mix of precision and spontaneity that makes the record a joy to listen to.
They venture into disco on “Mosaics”, Arabic funk on “Kuda Arab”, tender balladry on Ahmad’s Lament”, dancehall reggae on…
“Johnny can do what he wants,” Sturgill Simpson told Uncut when his new alias debuted on 2024’s Passage Du Desir, which found him rolling through Paris streets “like a cork in a bottle” while listening to ‘70s soft rock and Serge Gainsbourg.
His first five albums proper had burned Nashville bridges during an odyssey through outlaw country, psychedelia, synths and Kentucky bluegrass, while tracing the five metaphysical phases of the Western soul.
Johnny Blue Skies blew this preordained cycle away. He feels more real this time round, not as a Ziggy-style persona but as a means of instantaneous, unshackled creation. Mutiny After Midnight is a dirty boudoir record, a Southern take on Emotional Rescue, staged in a small-town…
Owelu Dreamhouse (pronounced Oh-WAY-lew) is a collaborative project masterminded by vocalist Nkechi Anele and multi-instrumentalist and arranger Nic Ryan-Glenie, both formerly of the band Saskwatch, with whom the pair helped shape the Melbourne soul renaissance. They now return with their new band, focused on a contemporary take on cinematic soul, supported by a myriad of musicians from their local scene.
Opener ‘Kellen’ sets their stall with its crisp percussion, sweeping strings, funk guitar licks and a searing trumpet solo in the track’s last leg. Anele lights up the record with her commanding vocals that vary from subtle and nuanced on ‘Tourist’ to searing intensity on the Afro-funk meets disco stomper ‘Struggle for Kasawa’.
The newest release from Buffalo, NY instrumental jamband, Organ Fairchild, continues their tripped-out grooves mixed with smooth flowing vibes that lovers of their live shows have come to cherish. BOOM! is a sweet collection that takes the listener on a journey with the band, knowing that the tracks will shift and morph when the group enters their natural habitat, the stage.
For this studio effort, Organ Fairchild (Joe Bellanti- organ and keyboards, Corey Kertzie- drums and percussion, and Dave Ruch- guitar) worked with Justin Guip (Hot Tuna, Levon Helm), who recorded, mixed, and co-produced, and Alan Evans (Soulive), who mastered the record.
Opener “Westside Bowl” mixes smooth lounge-ready sounds with chicken scratchy guitar…
New 2026 Edition of 600% Dynamite, part of Soul Jazz Records classic compilation series of Jamaican music, featuring killer reggae in all styles – ska, soul, rocksteady, dancehall, funk and dub. Originally released in 2003 this album has been out of print for nearly 20 years making it one of the most-collectible of Soul Jazz Records’ Dynamite! Series.
Newly remastered and relicensed for 2026, the album is packed with dancefloor classics and non-stop reggae anthems such as Tenor Saw’s ‘Golden Hen’, Johnny Osbourne’s ‘Buddy Bye’, Dennis Brown’s ‘Wolf & Shepard’ and Sister Nancy’s ’Transport Connection’ alongside hard-to-find cuts by Tall T and the Touchers, The Interns, Tetrack and others, making the album a superlative…
James Brown wants to know one thing before he and his band begin Sex Machine. “Can I get into the thing, really?,” he asks. His cohorts enthusiastically respond in the affirmative. And for the next hour and change, Mr. Dynamite gets into it and more, turning in a sweat-soaked, feet-moving, hip-swiveling, emotion-purging, in-the-red, drop-everything-you’re-doing-and-dance performance for the ages. Ranked by Rolling Stone among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, the sweeping 1970 effort towers as a testament to Brown’s inimitable legacy as well as the peak powers of his voice, vibrancy, and bands.
Sourced from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD presents Sex Machine in audiophile sound for…
Deluxe Edition is an expanded digital release by Record Kicks that includes three brand-new bonus tracks.
Legendary Milanese combo Calibro 35 continue their journey into the world of cinematic jazz-funk with their new album Exploration.
Exploration marks their return to independent label Record Kicks after their last studio album “Nouvelle Aventures” released on Universal Music in 2023. The band picks up from their latest EP, “Jazzploitation,” released on Record Kicks last October.
“Exploration” is a deep dive into the universe of cinematic jazz-funk, showcasing both the band’s reinterpretations of timeless classics such as Roy Ayers’ “Coffy” or Bob James “Nautilus”…
Congolese guitarist Kiala Nzavotunga began his career playing in Le Grand Kalle’s Africa Jazz band, but he became tired of the regime in the DRC and relocated to Nigeria in the ’70s, joining Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80 and later forming the African-French Afrobeat group Ghetto Blaster.
The second album with his Afroblaster collective, One Race (Tribute to Hilaire Penda) is dedicated to the titular Cameroonian bassist who inspired and supported countless African artists and musicians worldwide throughout his life. For example, in the ’90s Penda collaborated with Mory Kanté, Tala André Marie, Salif Keita, Kassé Mady Diabaté and Amadou Balaké while based in London. Undoubtedly, Penda also left his mark on Kiala, and this can be heard in the new…
House, techno, and garage were respectively invented in Chicago, Detroit, and New York, but the U.K. embraced them and took underground club sounds into the pop charts during the 1980s and ’90s. Burn It Up: The Rise of British Dance Music 1986-1991 explores some of the many developments that took place during the era, from the U.K.’s first attempts at acid house to early rave anthems. Like other Cherry Red anthologies, this one casts a wide net and tries to tell a comprehensive history of its subject, making room for established classics as well as rarities, curiosities, and inclusions that might be kind of a stretch, but hear them out anyway.
The collection starts with Coldcut’s “Beats + Pieces (Mo Bass Remix),” representing…
The second volume in the WaJazz Japanese Jazz Spectacle series, selected by Yusuke Ogawa.
“Japanese jazz expert Yusuke Ogawa continues the WaJazz exploration with another essential collection of music that contains something uniquely Japanese — focusing this time on the King Records catalog. Featuring timeless music by Isao Suzuki, Toshiaki Yokota, Akira Miyazawa, Takeru Muraoka, Yasuaki Shimizu, Masahiko Togashi, George Otsuka, and more.
“It is my great pleasure to introduce you to the second volume of the “Japanese Jazz Spectacle” series. Following the first compilation which focused on recordings from the Nippon Columbia catalog, this time we are digging into the King Records archives.
On their fourth album Yatta!, the celebrated Dutch quartet YĪN YĪN extends, bends, and ignites a joyous mix of disco, funk, surf, psychedelia, and Southeast Asian motifs. UNCUT magazine previously dubbed their highly addictive sound “cosmic disco”—a fitting starting point—but as Yatta! proves, the band’s sonic footprint is an ever-evolving kaleidoscope of sounds, textures, and beats.
As with their breakthrough album Mount Matsu (2024), their devotion to getting the dance floor moving remains front and center. That impulse, already strong, has intensified — Yatta! lifting it to an ecstatic next level.
The result? An album that reveals a band whose groove just keeps getting deeper.
If you know anything about SAULT, they don’t do interviews. They don’t do photo shoots. For years, the British collective — anchored by producer Inflo, has released music with almost no promotion, no faces attached, no origin story to sell. It’s philosophy that the songs belong to whoever needs them, and the people who made them would rather stay out of the way. Since 2019, SAULT has dropped nearly a dozen albums spanning funk, gospel, orchestral ambience, and protest soul, often releasing multiple projects at once (in 2022) as free downloads. Their 2020 records, Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise), arrived during the summer of George Floyd’s murder and spoke to that moment. The anonymity lets the collective voice stay collective — no star to distract…
Widely and rightly regarded as one of the best ever soul and funk bands, the now legendary Average White Band tore-up the rule book and conquered the US, UK & International charts with a series of soul and disco hits between 1974 and 1980.
Although probably best known for their global hit, the US #1 signature single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’, which reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 Chart, this superb collection features 34 classic recordings from ‘Show Your Hand’/’Put It Where You Want It’ (1973) to ‘Cupid’s In Fashion’ (1982).
The Essential Selection also includes their other UK and US hits, ‘Cut The Cake’, ‘Queen Of My Soul’, ‘Walk On By’, ‘For You, For Love’, the much sampled ‘School Boy Crush’, ‘When Will You Be Mine’, ‘If I Ever Lose This Heaven’, the track that…