Funky Friday Is Leaky

Dub Pistols - Gansgsters (feat. Terry Hall)
Speakers And Tweeters
Barry Ashworth has decided to drop the big beat thing all together and focus instead on hip hop, dub and disco party grooves. This is a remake of the old Specials classic with none other than the original singer. There are several other covers too - Blondie's Rapture, also with Terry singing, and The Stranglers' Peaches gets a cheeky update.

Von Südenfed - That Sound Wiped
Tromatic Reflexxions
The Fall's Mark E. Smith fronting Mouse On Mars. For real. This is a remake of Wipe That Sound from the duo's 2004 album Radical Connector. The rest of this entertaining LP fluctuates between power elctronics and hard edged electro pop with a couple of mellower interludes, all embellished with Mark E.'s ranting and raving. Good stuff.

Groove Armada - Drop That Thing
Soundboy Rock
These guys have been gone for almost 5 years, so I was interested to hear this. It's a good mix of old school electro, ragga, house and downtempo with a little bit of everything else in between. There are a bunch of guests - Simon Lord (Simian Mobile Disco), Candi Staton, Mutya Buena (ex Sugababe), Tony Allen (Fela Kuti/The Good The Bad & The Queen) and Alan Donohoe (The Rakes). I was unimpressed with 2003's Lovebox, and Soundboy Rock is an improvement - albeit a song or two too long.

DJ Mehdi - Always Be An Angel
DJ Mehdi - Hot-O-Momo
Lucky Boy
A great album on Ed Banger Records from this French whiz has him trying all kinds of stuff, from old school electro to house to party jams to Prince-ly funk. This is a seriously tasty set of electronica that isn't tired and boring and played out.

Björk - Hope
Volta
Sound quality is a bit iffy here but the record is a welcome return to more accessible fare, which I personally am glad for.