Recloose – Perfect Timing: Funk yes.

Detroit-native and now Auckland-based DJ/producer/live band leader/funkmaster du jour Matt Chicoine, a.k.a Recloose, has returned with album number four.

It is somewhat of a departure from his previous offering, with the live recording of The Recloose Band in Backwards and Sideways, with it’s polished studio-work but funkdified all the same.

Once again he is supported by a stellar team of local talent including Joe Dukie and Warren Maxwell from Fat Freddys fame and his long running (and proudly Hamilton-bred) vocal supplier, Tyna Keelan just to name a few.


After the collaboration that set the precident with party-pleaser 'Dust', he re-groups with Dukie's soulful vocals on neo-disco track 'Deeper Waters' to ensure that lovers on dancefloors everywhere will be satisfied.

Perhaps more importantly Keelan features and provides the accompaniment to what has become somewhat of a signature sound for Recloose. Good, old-fashioned funk gets its dirty hands on more than a few tracks and 'Emotional Funk' would undoubtedly have the Purple One tapping a bedazzled shoe in approval of the Minneapolis-tinged effort.

All of the nostalgia can be a bit much for some to swallow, with The Herald claiming it would have been more appropriate a few summers ago, as if this 1970-1980s referencing was coming all too late. Perhaps he should have gone for the early to mid-1990’s instead? How retro of Recloose.

All in all it sounds like summer and in this bitter winter, exactly what we all need.

Tiki Taane - Still funkin.

If you were forced to choose one person that embodied New Zealand dub, drum n bass, dubstep, electronica and roots music it would be fairly safe to say that you would think of Tiki Taane.

After burning up stages all over the country and the world as the front man for Salmonella Dub for 11 years he has gone on to work on himself as a solo artist and a person.

His latest album Past, Present, Future saw his journey into finding himself and a major component was getting back to his Maori roots.

“The kaupapa Maori world has totally energised me and made things a lot more clearer. I have embraced it wholeheartedly and I’m enjoying it.”

Primary collaborators included family members, most significantly his father who provides vocals on two of the tracks and performing with him on tour.

Behind the scenes they provide the framework also. His sister Ninakaye manages the business and other sister Maureen controls all merchandising.

He describes a trip to Rarotonga as being life-changing after visiting the beach where his ancestors left on the Tainui waka. Recognising the struggle that they had, he realised some of the battles he needed to fight within himself.

This change was manifested physically first when he shed his trademark dreadlocks and then saw some lifestyle changes including leaving the band that had given him so much.

By recognising he could not be fulfilled in what he wanted to express they parted ways to endeavour on in their musical journeys.

All of this talk of reflection could fool some into thinking that he couldn’t stay relevant as he has for so many years.

As a musician, audio engineer, producer and composer, this man is anything but complacent and this is clearly demonstrated through the new material provided.

Ranging the spectrum from peeled back acoustic love-songs to heavy electronic soundscapes he manages to stay challenging and cutting-edge.

“I’m hot now but in a years time there will be someone else that is hotter, my stuffs old so you always have to stay ahead of the game.”

Electric Wire Hustle: Why the funk not.

Haven’t heard of Electric Wire Hustle? Don’t beat yourself up, this slice of neo-funk that’s got more soul than a sock with a hole are fresh to the scene as a group but made up of some well-established individuals in New Zealand music.

With involvement in groups such as Solaa, Olmecha Supreme and the Recloose Live Band, just to name a couple, it is safe to say that this Wellington-based trio made up of Mara TK, Myele Manzanza and David ‘Taay’ Wright have only just begun to bring the funk.

With a strong rhythm section ensuring your head bops, grooving melodies and instrumentals to suck you in and topping it all off with buttery, soulful vocals to make sure you get the message, they manage not only to hark back to soul sessions of a bygone time but also prepare you for what is yet to come in the future of New Zealand soul/funk music.

Unfortunately they do not have much readily available to preview as yet, best bet being via their Myspace page but the teaser tracks you can get, such as Gimme That Kinda, are a hint of what is in store for you when they finally do. The repeated lyrics and cyclic beat of the rhythm section have this grunting, tribal groove have you quite convinced that you do indeed give them that kind of something they speak of.

Currently they are supporting Matt Chicoine, aka Recloose, on his national launch tour for the new album Perfect Timing, and but none independently as of yet but be warned to keep an ear out, if they follow up to the promise they have shown they will indeed have everyone doing the Electric Wire Hustle.

www.myspace.com/electricwirehustle