Wax Doctor – Atmospheric Funk

Furney did a awesome remix of atmospheric funk back in 2010. Played by the likes of LTJ Bukem and Fabio back then. Sadly it never made the light of day. Probably in part to all of the nastiness surrounding that Pipez track on Good Looking records.

Vocal sample from 'Never As Good' is from Sade. (Had been wondering where it was lifted from for years now.)

A great piece of vinyl from wax doctor .. both sides are great. Never as good wins though.. great stuff from a great artist. It is right up there in my top ten. Wax Doctor is unique, you can spot his sound anywhere and this was the icing on the cake for me when it dropped. Play it anytime, anywhere pure vibes from a jazzy dimension.

This is a 12" from Talkin' Loud Records that still graces my decks even today... A simple and slick production from the Wax Doctor, engineered by Alex Reece (of Basic Principles and Pulp Fiction fame), that was released at time when new standards were being forged in the heady underworld of Drum & Bass...

On the A side we got Atmospheric Funk, a simple, yet abstract jazz-funk number that Fabio used to play out quite a bit back in 1994, especially on his KISS 100 FM Wednesday slot. Starting off with a saxophone warble (of sorts), it drops nicely into the jittery break beat (one that was quite new at the time of its release) and is complemented beautifully by some heavily effected jazz stabs and a dirty electro double bass line to work it along. As it develops, a really nicely sliced up Apache break is layered over the top in the same way a hi hat might be used... Then sparse synth lines and strings are all introduced with great effect, letting this jazz-funk groove simmer nicely on the front burner, till it drops into the middle break-down that uses the raw Apache break. Kewl stuff... But it really should be heard to appreciate it properly. Definitely an ear opener for the time.

The B side holds a really lush and somewhat free-form B-Bop track called Never As Good. Starting with a nice simple hi hat intro that is accompanied with a light synth jitter, it just oozes pure Summer Vibes!!! Then a vocal sample repeating Open Up Your Mind drops with some great breaks... I can only presume that the sample was referring to the new vibe that Saunders and Reece were bringing into the jungle dominated scene. Bit like saying: check me out, I'm fresh! Then the lovely Never As Good sample enters... Lovely chops and edits on the breaks really let this light breezy number develop and flow, until it breaks into a slightly tense mid section. But this eases out with some mad synth line back into the original groove.

All in all an awesomely light and refreshing summer vibe from Mr Saunders and Mr Reece.