When I think of funk, this is the sound I hear in my head. The fat bass (is that the “phat” bass?), the hissing hi-hats, the waka-waka guitar licks, the muffled exhortations of the vocalist… put it all together and that’s The Fatback Band.

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People were shocked when Grace Jones performed her “One Man Show” at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in October 1981. Including me.

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This was the first funk I ever really “got” – I remember first hearing it in a pub on the Mile End End where there was a DJ who span tunes far removed from my usual New Wave and postpunk fare.

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Sticking with the No Wave post-disco sound of Ze Records, here is the weird, eclectic and infectious debut single by Was (Not Was).

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Butcher Brown are a self-proclaimed “proud throwback to the progressive jazz-funk bands of the 1970s with a 21st century twist” – a phrase that would once have filled me with horror.

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I never heard this when it came out back in 1975 – I was listening to Wish You Were Here until Horses came along – but I’ve heard that drum break sampled dozens of times in hip hop and house tunes since then.

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I don’t know how you can make a song sound this funky with little more than a bunch of drums from Africa and Asia. But dammit, Nina Simone can. And she did.

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Being somewhat jazz-hesitant, if not an outright jazzophobe, especially when it comes to the F-word – “fusion” – I obviously haven’t heard of Alphonse Mouzon before.

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Here’s a slice of slinky, sinuous, sweaty, steamy Southern funk from the natural home of that sort of thing – New Orleans.

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Lack Of Afro’s Adam Gibbons teams up with Greg Blackman on his euphoric new single Loving Arms. I’ll be the first to admit I am naturally drawn to the melancholy in music ahead of hands-in-the-air dancefloor bangers. But even I can’t resist the irrepressible euphoria of a song like this.

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