On “Scrabo Electric”, The Vendetta Suite pays affectionate tribute to the music of his body-popping, backspinning youth. The track’s title is taken from the nickname for the electrical store where he and his friends, growing up in County Down’s Newtownards, would buy music, cassettes such as Street Sounds’ seminal “Electro” series. 

There are 4 mixes and the first pays direct homage to classics such as Jay Burnett’s original “Drum Machine”, Cybotron’s “Clear” and Hashim’s “Al Naafiysh”. Showered in samples, there are flashes of The Grandmaster’s adventures with The Furious Five, Trouble Funk’s “Pump Me Up” and doses of Davey’s DMX. Songs are scratched and the programming P-Funk inspired. 

“Uprock At Digby’s Disco” picks up the pace. Rapid and urgent, with rattling, metallic percussion and ORCH5 strings shot down from outer space, and the mood now more “battle”, more “The Return Of Captain Rock” and Arthur Baker’s “Breakers Revenge”. 

The “Lead Mines Bonus Beats” then drops the tempo again with tough, block-rocking, Keith Leblanc-like beats. The track stripped away, with echoed “Buffalo Gals” and Fab 5 Freddy fragments flying around backing that’s a ringer for Tackhead’s Fats Comet. A more machined 23 Skidoo / “Coup”, perhaps. The bass slapped, a la Doug Wimbish, amid Adrian Sherwood-esque mixing desk effects. 

This is all damn fine funky fun, and for a nostalgic old fuck like me, honestly, pretty joyful. The heartfelt creations free of any concern for current musical fashions or vogues. However, “A Dub For Dave” brings things bang up to date with a show of slow, 21st Century digidub skanking. Mixing melodica and synth melodies. Dodging “Duck Rock” debris and Mikey Dread radio jingle snippets. 

The Vendetta Suite’s “Scrabo Electric” can be ordered directly from Hell Yeah Recordings.