Paraphrasing the Soul Sonic Force and sorting through today`s releases for tunes that could have graced Alfie & Leo’s Amnesia dance-floor…

Black Bones / Barrios & Barricades / Black Bones

Black Bones unleash the 10” component of their latest planned 3 format project. The 12, which landed last fall, was almost an album in itself. However, these new tracks further flesh out The Bones’ sound for the uninitiated, with a couple of new contrasting, driving cuts aimed at darker dance floors. Cruising, a collaboration with Belfast neighbour Autumns starts kinda gothic rock. All slamming, industrial snares and sharp, angular B-line, before transforming into a percussive, techno, tribal ritual a la William Bennett’s Cut Hands, and BB’s own Warped. 

On the flip, Barrios & Barricades is a belligerent, bass-heavy post-punk funk groove. Stripped back to basics but shaken by crowd noise and echoed, excited shouts. It’s the punchy guts of acts like Gramme and Chicken Lips’ Big Two Hundred offshoot, with bonus live dub dropouts. Totally recalling Dennis Bovell’s radical, seminal work with Bristol’s Pop Group. These days, with this sort of gear, you also can’t help but name check the mighty Holy Tongue. 

GLOK & Timothy Clerkin / Witching Hour (Richard Sen Remix) / Bytes

Richard Sen gets in on the remixing of Andy “GLOK” Bell and Timothy Clerkin’salbum, Alliance, and works his magic on Witching Hour. The original chugger was built on a beat that was a ringer for the Happy Mondays’ Wrote For Luck. Here, Sen stays with the “baggy” vibe, but switches the drums for the go-go-not-go-go shuffle of that most Balearic of breaks, plucked from Family Tree’s Family Tree. Adding chiming synths, electro bass belches and echoed and tape-treated vocals. 

Jimpster / Becoming Cyclonic / Freerange Records

The A-side of this 10”, Burning Up, which seems to have been recently repressed, was a big festival hit back in 2018. However, its disco meets Green Velvet conniption fit isn’t what’s got me hot. The flip, Becoming Cyclonic is slowly, subliminally building jazzy, tech-y house. With aquatic, bubbling beats, darting chimes and Detroit-y strings it dances around a fretless fusion bass loop. Soulful, yet ever so slightly trippy / trance-y, imagine Mixmaster Morris’ Irresistible Force jamming with Miroslav Vitous. 

LCBC / Magpie Eyes / Tici Taci

I have, and can find, no info on the mysterious LCBC. However, I can tell you that as far as their single Magpie Eyes goes, the New Order vibes are strong with this one. The original mix is a kinda gothic combination of echoed electric riffs and stomping four-to-the-floor. Its marvellous, melodic Peter Hook-homaging bass-line elevating it way out of the ordinary. 

A Black Fades version intensifies the dub disco beat, and echoed, Bernard Sumner-esque arcs. The results like a modern take on the post-punk funk that Andrew Weatherall and his 9 O’clock Drop once helped popularise. Weatherall obsessives Rude Audio then deliver a remix, which starts spooky and spectral, like a haunted dancehall reprise – all ghostly guitar licks – but that quickly shifts speeds into filtered house. 

Leonidas & U-Guru / Love For Black Lives / Noetic Rhythm

Acclaimed analogue aficionado / producer Leonidas teams up with horn player U-guru for a track titled Love For Black Lives. A high quality hit of classic deep house, while showcasing U:guru’s smokey sax solos and bright brass hooks, it’s centred around a passionate speech from jazz legend Bob James. For just over 10 minutes, James looks back at his career, sharing, celebrating, a long, long list of black artists who have inspired him, and who he has worked with. In the process referencing the murder of George Floyd. 50% of the profits from the release will be donated to the charity Tomorrow’s Warriors.

The 12 features both a beatless acapella and an instrumental dub. There’s also a big bonus in the shape of Acid Love. A terrific, tumbling TB-303 workout, tamed a tad by epic, emotive swells, this is a far tougher trip, produced in conjunction with Leonidas’ longstanding spar and collaborator, Time Capsule’s Kay Suzuki.

Max In The World & Kroba / Structures Of Feeling 1 / Bliss Point

Continuing a collaboration that began in 2023, New York based producer, Max In The World and saxophonist, Brooklynite Kroba have put together a new 3 track EP. All the tunes are built around Max’s bumping mid-tempo house rhythms and spotlight Kroba’s sax and clarinet. Shouting At A Hostile World does so with swirling treated vocals. Serenaded by those romantic reeds. My Life Is A Bubble boasts a sample, that repeats the title, and marches with a slightly `80s pop feel (I was thinking Tears For Fears). Kroba’s blowing becoming increasingly uplifting as the journey proceeds. Solitude Will Eat You Up moves a little more forcefully. Stamping and stomping. Adding disco hand claps. However, Kroba, again, now fluttering and echoed, puts things into ”loved-up”, soft focus. Showing off his gentle, jazzy chops. The beats are driving, but the details dreamy. The synths sorta shining / glowing. Making for a 10-minute hypnotic, head-nodding trip.  

Secret Soul Society / Disco Minded / Rare Wiri Records

Wasting no time, Cal Gibson’s Secret Soul Society surfaced early Jan for its first release of the new year. Gracing Spaniard Rayko’s Rare Wiri Records with 4 prime pieces of his trademark, party-starting plunderphonics. Clever creations where Nina Simone, for example, surfs popping, percolating loops. 

Disco Minded combines snippets of soulful vocal with jazzy contrabass clips. The more overtly electronic Dub Know Why boasts big, slowly bouncing beats. Its bottom end growling, threatening to turn acidic, while shaken by wonky, wobbly sound effects. The standout, though, is Sunny Today.  Something that’s set to be a smash. A little bit of summer before spring has even thought about being sprung. Sliced and diced, somewhere between disco and soft rock, it carries an uplifting, sorta country-got-soul swing. Brass blasts building to a rousing robotic chorus. Squelchy SFX updating its rolling, vintage, feel good groove.