US

Following up on the massive worldwide success of their debut album 55, Bacao Rhythm & Steel band is back with another heavy duty offering. Picking up where they left off and incorporating a ton of new recording techniques they take a huge step forward with The Serpent’s Mouth. Named after the eight-mile strait between the island of Trinidad and the coast of Venezuela, The Serpent’s Mouth is a journey through both originals and covers, combining classic elements that wide-eared music fans already know, and mashing them up in new and unique ways.Take “1 Thing” – on it, the group attacks the galloping, chopped Amerie smash hit, with singing pans that follow the R & B vocal. The sound is crisp and up-front, arguably more muscular than the 2005 original. On “Great To Be Here,” they take on the Jackson 5 B-Boy favorite (which stretches back to the Zulu Nation / Bronx block party days) – uncoincidentally, the original version featured a guitar lick that emulated a steel pan run. Here, it gets an even more pulsating groove, adding open-drums breaks throughout, to get DJs salivating. The group veers through more inventively-constructed covers as the album’s sequence continues, including Gang Starr’s “All For The Cash”, Mary J. Blige’s “I Love You”, and the recently unleashed first single, “XXplosive” and “Burn,” paying tribute to both Dr. Dre and Mobb Deep for a bi-coastal funk party. And, as band leader Bjorn Wagner states, “My favorite cover on the album is probably ‘Crockett Theme,’ which is the theme to ‘Miami Vice.’ I always loved the melody, and the cosmic vibe of the song, and I was honestly surprised that it worked without synthesizers.”This time around the group’s originals are even stronger, as evidenced by cuts like the flute-fueled break-fest of “Hoola Hoop”, the slow and spacey “Touchdown”, and the album’s title track, the future-epic-adventure-movie-soundtrack cut “The Serpent’s Mouth.” Wagner explains, “I wrote the song with Bernhard Hummer as an instrumental fantasy story – think of pirates, smugglers and a dangerously beautiful sea passage towards the island. It became an allegory for our mind travels into the world of the steel pan.”The Serpent’s Mouth is sure to please past fans and newly-minted ones alike. It seems like a new era for Steel Drum music is upon us, and Bacao is firmly leading the way into the hearts of music fans around the world.

In recent years, Los Angeles rapper Blu has become one of hip hop’s most prolific artists, releasing more than a dozen acclaimed projects and building a worldwide fanbase. The gifted lyricist often joins forces with a single producer for an entire collection, leading to classic collaborative releases with Exile, Nottz, Madlib, and more. Now, Blu is back with The Blueprint, a new mixtape produced by Shafiq Husayn. Known as one third of visionary production team Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Shafiq has produced for the likes of Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Andre 3000, John Legend, Anderson Paak, Thundercat, Bilal, Ty Dolla $ign, Ice T, and many more. Dedicated to the gang culture that permeates the city they both call home, The Blueprint reflects Blu’s eternal L.A. state of mind, with Shafiq’s eclectic soundscapes providing the perfect backdrop. After mysteriously appearing online and then abruptly disappearing, the project is now receiving an official release on CD and vinyl.

Tales of sordid street escapades, drugs and fast women have been long running themes for Tucson, AZ’s Zackey Force Funk. Though these are themes that have been explored to excess in music over the years, his psychedelic, acid-trip style has been what places him in another realm. Three quarters singing and one quarter rapping, the Force Funk sound has been well-established in the world of underground electronic music over the last decade. With the arrival of his MoFunk debut album, Bodyrock Shotgun, ZFF is set to advance yet another level with melodic modern funk production that challenges him to expand his one-of-a-kind vocal style to new territory.Highlights include the XL Middleton-produced title cut, a slow-rolling, vocoder-laced tune that haunts as much as it thumps. Brian Ellis brings his signature brand of moody electro funk on “Glass Dick Lovin’,” a dark tale of love lost to drug addiction. “Money Weighs A Ton,” imported from the recent Boy Dude LP on Hobo Camp, slides seamlessly into the playlist with pulsating synths framing an unapologetic hustler’s manifesto. “El Mero Mero” (prod. by XL Middleton) stands as another declaration of street corner superiority, while “Get The Gun” serves as a self-explanatory footnote on how to keep said position, over Moog-y production from Adam Chini that is equal parts Blaxploitation and retro science fiction. Further productions from Throwback Zack, Proh Mic, Trailer Limon, DJ Spy-D, and Elegant Borzoi form a veritable who’s who in the land of modern funk, and show Zackey’s superb ear for beat curation.

After opening for Roy Ayers, a packed out Euro tour and features on Moodymann’s illustrious DJ-Kicks, jitwam comes thru with a funky dose of luscious bass and hand-clapping soul – back from the shadows and into the purple