Wednesday, June 6, 2007

This Is My Kind of Revival


I was watching a video clip of Keb Darge talking about music. For those who don't know, Keb Darge is buddies with Cut Chemist and Shadow and actually opened for them on the Product Placement tour. He is an encyclopedia and archive of old Soul and Funk music. Basically, he is a serious digger. He was talking about there is this label out right now that is making the best funk music. He says there is literally no bad recording from the label. It is a new label too, from Brooklyn. It is called Daptone Records. Now, I get kinda cautious about modern funk music. Usually I think of a bunch reallly boring white kids with strats or happy go lucky people just jamming. It gets me a bit sick honestly. But Daptone is none of that. It is straight up raw, deep funk, the best stuff around. It has a myspace. Go to it. I urge you. The house band is Dap-Kings. These guys are seriously damn good. You might know them because they hang out with Mark Ronson. They were the band on his versions, and I have a feeling they were the band on Back To Black by Miss Winehouse. So that should give you an idea what the music is like.

The flagship artist is Sharon Jones, and she has the Dap-Kings as her band. I have downloaded two of her albums: Naturally and Dap-Dappin'. These two albums are balls to the wall amazing funk music. The music sounds like it was straight from the 70s. The production is flawless. You won't hear drums mic'd any better, well maybe James Murphy. The music is fast, grooving, soulful, and very energetic. Miss Jones is one of the finest vocalists I've heard in some time. So pretty much, this stuff is some of the most exciting and fun music around, and it is so fresh and new.

A few years from now, hip hop producers will not be cutting up old James Brown samples, they will be cutting up Daptone artists's breaks. I certainly hope Daptone gets some recognition. It really deserves it. When you think about the "soul" or "r&b" music on the radio today, it makes you want to take a watery shit and wipe your stereo with it. Daptone is the real deal. So please brothers and sisters pick up a Daptone single of any sort, and you will not be dissapointed.

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