The Groove Thief

Ancient Astronauts, Germany’s poly-dub explorers, have recently released two free funky tracks off of their Orion Nebula Remixes album. Their own Tuffist Mix of “Give It To You” feat. Monsoon has a heavy bass-line and reverberating vocals that create the type of future/past dance-floor the group has become famous for. Greece’s Timewarp Inc. lets the plucky bass take over on their remix of “Anti Pop Song,” before horns and echoed voices are unleashed halfway through the track. As some extra goodies, check out the album snippet mix and the video for “Give It To You” (Subatomic Sound System Remix):

Thousand Yard Prayer combine breakbeats with world music on World Without End, sharing not only influences but also band members and label with Secret Archives of the Vatican.  Thousand Yard Prayer is more focused on creating a hypnotic groove, with opener “Sassanid” combining drum and Eastern instrument loops to lock the listener in.  ”Pilgrims” features a frantic drum-n-bass style beat, while “Healer” is a bit more lush despite a fast-paced melody, and “Mughal” aims to impersonate Mid-Eastern heavy machinery before caving under the pressure of the main theme.  These are interesting tracks, with a definite core style, with an emphasis on both percussive and melodic elements.  Free stream and download:

Secret Archives of the Vatican produce mystical breakbeat electronic music.  With Middle Eastern melodies and nuanced high-tempo drums, this is engaging and unique.  Maybe if Beats Antique were sped up, that would be close, but this has more focus: a honed instrumental force designed to crush unsuspecting dancefloors.  Dubstep is no foe, and other funk, reggae, and drumstep influences creep in on tracks as well.  Here are their latest two albums, available courtesy of Broken Drum Records, for download or stream.  Barbary Lion is a bit more rugged and dubby, the gritty desert journey before Panjandrum’s heavy oasis party.  Cool tunes, awesome band name, this is ‘Transglobal Breakbeat Dub Science’ indeed:

Vancouver’s The Funk Hunters have taken the essence of funk and applied it across the musical spectrum, creating a potent bass stew clearly steeped in the breakbeat tradition, but equally influenced by the rhythms of glitch-hop, the elasticity of mashups, and the party vibes of house music.  This is a nice vision of future bass music that puts the ‘fun’ in funky.  Find your own cheesy pun after giving these a listen:

Representing DUBlin, Dirty Dubsters turn reggae into bass-heavy dance-floor music.  Their last few tracks have been horn-laden as well, creating a potent blend of melodies and beats that still incorporates dub style, albeit in a future-forward manner.  I first heard a DD remix on Blend Mishkin’s Mama Proud Riddim Remixes album and likewise their Outlook Festival 2012 Competition Entry is simply a banger.  A well-chosen vocal, those crucial horns, and the balance between light and heavy make this a winner.  Less than a day old is a remix of “Unity,” by Mikkim featuring Coyote, which is more digital and features nice techno (not dubstep) buildups and drops.  Plenty of other solid tracks, as in over 100, are featured on Soundcloud as well.

Krafty Kuts returns with the 5th installment of his relentless floor-funk mix series Fresh Kuts.  All are available as free Soundcloud downloads, and this latest session doesn’t disappoint.  Krafty continues to blend together samples from classic house, early hip-hop, and all shades of funk and then pummel them with pounding beats that never quit.  This is great party music, or in my case mid-afternoon housework music, since all this energy is motivating and infectious.