Here’s a deep cut from Santana… No, it isn’t. It’s by a school band from Nigeria called Ofege, recorded back in the early ’70s.

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“You got to have a J-O-B if you wanna be with me… No romance without finance.” This is one of the finest funk and soul singles of all time – despite its far-from-feminist materialistic message; it was the ’80s after all. (more…)

This is a fantastic discovery If you like funky horn sections and you like powerful female voices. They don’t come much more powerful than Lydia Pense and her San Francisco-based band Cold Blood.

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Bobby Byrd ought to be much more famous. He gave James Brown his big break and wrote most of his hits but never became a household name.

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It’s almost a quarter of a century since that landmark moment when MARRS told us all to Pump Up The Volume. It’s a moment channelled by Dan Snaith in Caribou’s new single, a homage simply titled Volume – and it’s an addictive slice of summer fun that’s perfect for a sunny day.

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Just when you think you’ve heard it all, along comes a tune from (and I quote) “the core of Melbourne’s burgeoning movement of cinematic instrumental soul.”

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Cream’s original version of this song was played a lot when I was at school, driven along by a bassline Jack Bruce apparently inspired by seeing a Hendrix concert. It was only much later that I heard this funky soul version by Spanky Wilson, with its exuberant horns and serpentine basslines.

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This fantastic afro-flavoured fusion of funk and soul comes from a Soweto nightclub back in the dark days of apartheid in the early ’70s. It’s performed by Abacothozi, house band at the township’s first nightclub, The Pelican.

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Simultaneously smooth, smouldering AND funky, this tune helped give soul singer Gwen McCrae a second lease of life on the Northern Soul circuit in the UK.

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The sun is out, the sky is blue and you’ll forget the mercury is hovering just above freezing as soon as you hear this tasty slice of funked-up Congolese rumba.

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