Combining the blues power of Muddy Waters with the sludgy riff-rock of Black Sabbath, the Juggs, fronted by vocalist/guitarist Kareem Bunton, would have done quite well for themselves in the late 1960s. But they’ll fare just fine in 2010; despite their influences, the Brooklyn trio sounds modern enough to run with a forward-looking group like, say, TV on the Radio, the band propelled by Bunton’s younger brother, drummer Jaleel Bunton.

Pick up the Juggs’ African Queen here.

Wisely, the veteran drummer and Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen has chosen not to burn out or fade away. Instead, he’s kept his nose to the grindstone, working with everyone from Jimmy Cliff to Blur’s Damon Albarn since parting ways with Fela Kuti around 1980. Inspiration Information 4, out now on Strut Records, pairs Allen with yet another new partner, the eccentric vocalist and saxophonist Jimi Tenor.

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Leave it to Ma Dukes, the mother of J Dilla, to sum up the sentiment of something so large it seemed incondensable: “Music is universal. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. But it exudes a love that we can all understand.” These words, spoken kindly, gently, and in terrific Ma Dukes style to a sold out crowd in Los Angeles last February, best describe Timeless. read more »

Back in Issue #29, we profiled Plantlife’s Jack Splash–the man behind 2004’s critically acclaimed future-funk/hip-hop masterpiece, The Return of Jack Splash and its follow-up, Time Traveler. In anticipation for his upcoming album Technology and Love Might Save Us All, Splash brings us the mixtape Heir to the Throne Vol.1. In collaboration with DJ Skee, Splash mixes funk, R&B, hip-hop, and pop into fifteen lively, energetic tracks. Heir to the Throne is now available for download over at The Smoking Section.

Strictly for the poppies, this second installment of Cuban funk courtesy of Waxing Deep is a pretty thorough roundup of the best that the island had to offer in the ’70s. It’s got the heavy conga workouts (Grupo Monumental’s “Tremendo Tremendo”), the more sophisticated styles for your mature audience (Juan Pablo Torres’s “Y Aperecio el Trombon”), as well as some straight-up harder hitting funk (Los Llamas’ “Siboney”). This comp is pretty sassy and offers a particularly revealing look at what communism should have sounded like. Check out volume one as well.