Funkier Sounds February 2025

Welcome to another funky edition of Funkier Sounds, with enough funky fun to fill a funky thing.

This month:

• Just enough time for a quick dance

• Loosely Defined Funk…

• I’ve also started a new thing: Funkier 15

• Gem of the Month

Just enough time for a quick dance

I’ve been quite busy with life and working on a couple of remixes, and February’s a short month isn’t it? So I’ve only had time to do a cheeky mash up for your free download this month. It’s a marriage of two noughties songs you might not have heard for a while - Dance Wiv Me by Calvin Harris and Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy. I’ve called it Gnarly Calv, and have laid CeeLo’s unique vocal over Calvin’s groovy melody. It’s straightforward, I’m not sure how well it works, but it’s yours if you want it. Maybe I’m crazy?!

Loosely Defined Funk…

Whilst my fortnightly Funkier Sounds show on NDC has been continuing as ever, I’ve also just been back on the mighty LOOSE.FM with my monthly-ish show Definitions Of Funk. I bloody love doing these shows - a full two hours to stretch out, dig deep into my collection, go super eclectic and slowly build things up. As always we started slow and soulful, and this time we visited the world of hip hop, sampled some bubbly cosmic funk, took in a bit of boogie, broken beat, soulful house and US garage then ended on some joyous disco. Hope you enjoy, and don’t forget to check out some of the other amazing DJs on the station.

I’ve also started a new thing: Funkier 15

In my attempt to up my socials game and resurrect my YouTube channel I’ve created a new series that I’m calling Funkier 15. The idea is to embrace my tednency as a DJ to jump between tracks quickly by picking a genre, sub-genre, vibe or theme, then cramming as many tracks as I can into a 15 minute video mix as a little bite-sized showcase of that sound. Episode 1 was my beloved P-Funk, and I ended up fitting 12 Parliament/ Funkadelic/ Bootsy/ George Clinton and similar tracks in. I think it worked pretty well and I’ve already recorded Episode 2, so keep an eye out for that (follow the playlist to have it pop right into your Soundcloud feed!). I also need ideas for more, so if you’ve got any sugestions for a genre or theme for a future mix, hit reply on this email and let me know!

Gem of the Month

This month’s gem oozes magic from the first note - we’re talking about Baby, You Lied by M’Lady, released 45 years ago. In a way it feels like a slightly weird juxtaposition - as it’s about being lied to, but to me it sounds happy and joyful. Maybe that was the point. Wonderful strings, a little guitar jangle, a sort of Motown tambourine type thing going on… It’s upbeat, uplifting and feels full of hope. And we all need a bit of hope right now.

Thanking you, let’s do this again in March!

Tom xx