Two awesome awesome tracks -

'As we proceed, to give you what you need'
Smoove remix of Message from the King is a great hip-hop-at-breaks-tempo cut up track which is peppered with hot, changing beats and a real b-boy mentality. Lots of engery and a great bassline throughout. Full marks.

'Rockin' this funk!'
Fort Knox Five mix of Get it Together is also a swinging track, with a good break, excellent choppy horns and spot-on samples - quality throughout and a brilliantly representative of the niche Fort Knox, All Good Funk Alliance, Dr Rubberfunk etc have carved themselves.

A good first release from Funky Chocolate - quirky and DJ-tool worthy, in so much as 'Starsky Connection' is a snippet from Starsky and Hutch (good intro or interlude stuff) while the other tracks are essentially looped disco/block party grooves. The best is 'Supersoul Deluxe' which mixes a treat with Onionz/Joeski - Editz 4 Dayz. The other two are good but perhaps 'Black People' is a bit too fast/frantic without enough variation - good bass lick on 'Funky Street' though! Nice package :oD

Club Lonely is a deep house styled track, with great use of eerie, floaty vibes over a firm classic beat - serious head-nodding value. Nice breakdown in the middle with the phrase 'Welcome to the Club....' - overall, perhaps there isn't a great deal of variation. Good groove though.

Greens and Cornbread is a more discofied number with a soaring string line and nice messed-up beats. Again, perhaps there aren't too many ideas here but it's a good mid-to-peak-time groove. Good stuff :oD

'Why you trying to Hustle me?' is a great track with its 70s-raw-funk-feel. Good tumblin' beats, lead onto little stabby horns, which lead onto more horns'n'claps, which eventually get onto a sweet little flute line - the whole thing sprinkled with cool samples. Excellent stuff!
Chicago Street is a little 70s interlude snippet (useful as a DJ tool), while the Black Coffee mix of Club Lonely is like a tougher, more repetitive version of the original version on an earlier Funky Choc release.
So, a very good slab if only for '...trying to Hustle me?'

If I was cynical, I could say that this was an easy cash-in on the current rise in chill-out music at the moment. But I'm not. The Ibizzare Mix of Finally does a pretty good job with deep, ambient, almost aquatic sounds swirling around the brilliant vocals. The mix of Fatal Fatal! is ok, but the weakest, and speeds up to about 130bpm in the middle. The Afterlife mix of Guitarra G is actually pretty good, with it's subtle d&b-style beats. But I reckon the Ibizzare mix of 'do it now' wins when it spaces out into lightly pounding beats, fab vocals and typical ambisonics.
Overall, it's all very nice and when playing a chill-out set would be useful to play as stuff that people already know.

Onionz, straight out of the so-called West Coast house scene, has been making quality beats and grooves for a while but this EP is superb. There are two tracks. The first, 'Latino Dubb' is a bit quirky with metalic beatz, tribal chanting and a ruff bassline. It's close but not the one. 'Afro Funk' on the other hand is just FANTASTIC! In a world where 'tribal' is confined to dark, moody and surprisingly simplistic percussion, this has great drums that really come alive in the 3/4 of the track. But the focus is placed on an amazingly catchy, funky, and brilliant horn riff which is the making of this track. It's cleverly used and devestates when played out.
Where does Onionz get these samples from?

Subliminal is a label of pure quality with all of its releases and this is a great way to start. The production by Jose Nunez, Erick Morello and DJ Sneak is solid and tight while the vocals are great in their US Garage style. However, the remixes give this track great new dimensions. Basement Jaxx do a great latin-vibe mix and a crazy nite dub while DJ Sneak's 'Mongofun Dub' uses a great, ass-shakin' bassline. The other mixes kinda take a sideline to the great Jaxx mixes, but there're still all good.

Like spotty teenagers, the Jaxx can be quite rebelious at times. This EP, released about the same time as 'Romeo', is pure punk garage with 'I live in camberwell' bouncing along to crazy vocals and ruff beats. Light ya lighta is a funky electro/ragga mash-up while Camberskank keeps the mad ragga shouts but over a funk-infused b-line. And then there's the added bonus of a short and funny 'Queen's Speech' as well....nice!

Peace Division are masters of creating a hynotnic, jackin' groove and this is no different. Built for big systems the tracks suck you in and work a treat. 'D'tuned' is probably the weaker of the two with some odd disco/rock sample moving up and around the mix. Tribal Phunk is great though. Super beats and percussion with trademark tech-noises all held together with a hugely infectious bass-line. Cool!