Family Attraction
Disco Boogie

For fans of Mayfield, Redding et al, this is an unmissable set of rough-edged soul. North Carolina's Lee Fields has had a long career with some dramatic pauses, but the last few years have seen him stronger than ever with LPs on Truth & Soul and now Big Crown Records. "It Rains Love" is his second LP with The Expressions, and it strikes a classic Motown note that sounds utterly timeless in its execution. The production definitely has some of the warmth and grit of Motor City classics from back in the day, but Fields' conviction and power in his delivery sounds bang up to date. For fans of Mayfield, Redding et al, this is an unmissable set of rough-edged soul.

There’s liberation on the dance floor in the songs of Matthew Urango – glimpses of revolution that glimmer beneath the disco ball. “I want my music to bring people together,” says the Californian pop innovator, best known as Cola Boyy. “Because standing together is our best chance at fighting this shit show.” The shit show in question is a broken, brutal system the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist has witnessed up-close. Urango was born with spina bifida and scoliosis in Oxnard, California: a town in which almost 30,000 are estimated to live in poverty. Prosthetic Boombox, his eagerly awaited debut album, might at first glance seem a joyous confetti-burst of pop eclecticism, engineered to sound like “scanning between stations on a car radio, landing on all these different sounds and styles” as Urango puts it. Dig deeper, though, and you’ll discover a simmering sense of rebellion. “The working class are injured, struggling to pay rent and struggling to put food on the table,” he says. “I want to represent that.” Prosthetic Boombox achieves that goal in a thrilling flurry of inventive indie, funk and soul: take Urango’s car radio analogy, place it in a time-travelling Delorean with Prince in the passenger seat, and you’re half-way there. Look no closer than Prosthetic Boombox’s euphoric opener, the Avalanches-assisted ‘Don’t Forget Your Neighborhood.’ The track – which Urango says mixes “the Beach Boys, French disco, house keys and ragtime piano, kinda like the Cheers soundtrack!” – ends with lyrics urging listeners to “fight for your town with your fist closed, strike it and make it more than just a memory.” It’s a reminder that the working classes need to “turn our fists against our oppressors instead of each other,” he explains. After that emphatic introduction comes a horn-laced funk wig-out titled ‘Mailbox’ – a song that gives Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia a run for its Studio 54-themed money, featuring rising Londoner JGrrey. Elsewhere, ‘Song For The Mister’ ventures into smooth R&B territory, before ‘Roses’ – a collaboration with Myd of Ed Banger fame – offers a bouquet of bustling disco guitars and Infinite Bisous of Connan Mockasin’s band drops in on the immaculate ‘Go The Mile’. Urango saves his most introspective moment for the album’s starry closer. ‘Kid Born In Space’, a cosmic collaboration with MGMT frontman Andrew VanWyngarden, sees the artist reflect on what he once had to overcome as a disabled person of colour. “I see them looking down on my dreams of being,” he sings tenderly. “I hear them making fun of my voice, but I keep on moving forward, I refuse to live in anyone else’s shadow.” Prosthetic Boombox, on this subject, is more than an album title – it’s a statement of intent.

Spacial Pop et Indie Rock sur cet ep d'une rare douceur ! Fan de douceurs c'est pour vousLOS RETROSRetrospectStones Throw US

It’s one of the best kept secrets of the Indonesian archipelago.Hidden away on a pop album inspired by The Police, lies ‘Licik’, a deep vocoder funk workout lasting over nine minutes. It’s the first recorded Indonesian song to use the vocoder in such a way.‘Licik’ is a hauntingly unique track and a testament to the quality of some of the best music the archipelago has to offer. Friends 82, consisting of Delly Rollies, Norman Rachman and the vocoder wizard Harry Sabar, wrote and recorded the track on the spot back in 1981.The B-side pays tribute to the original song, with a re-contextualisation of the original by Jakarta-born, Bali-based multi-instrumentalist Dea Barandana.Fully licensed from the songwriter and living legend Harry Sabar.The record comes in a custom die cut sleeve with printed inner sleeve and a four page insert with extensive liner notes and photos.

Neon Finger once again pays tribute to the figure of the great Roger Troutman with the second part of the compilation entitled “We Love You Roger”. Some of the most respected names in the modern funk scene show his love for a key figure, who still remains a huge influence today.