Keb Darge presents Funk For The 21st Century

'Funk for the 21st Century' by Keb Darge I am sure you are aware that the world today is filled with crap throw-away music, manufactured superstars, a plenty of talent-less bedroom dance music producers with only a few decent ones, a plenty of the experimental music that is being released should have waited until it had finished being experimented with, and critics who rave about the next new piece of shite, simply because it is the next new piece of shite. In order to escape this horror more and more of us are turning to the timeless music of the past: Rockabilly, Jazz, Soul, Ska, Doo Wop, 60's Garage, Funk, and a few others. Me? I have concentrated on Soul and Funk. Like so many others I searched high and low, and spent a fortune seeking out new discoveries from a bygone era to satisfy my hunger.

I became a curator of these lost treasures. Then one happy day a copy of Joseph Henry's "Who's the king " arrived on my doorstep. Phooar! This was one of the best early 70's records to ever have seduced my ears. I found it more exciting than any of my James Brown collection, and so did the dance floors I played it to. However it wasn't from those hallowed days, it was a brand new recording of a brand new tune. Produced by my buddies Gabe Roth and Phillip Lehman in New York.

Suddenly the future began to look bright, and it was. Desco records then sent me a constant stream of these new works of art. Lee Fields, a name I was already familiar with, but then, Sharon Jones, Naomi Davis, The Sugarman Three, The Mighty Imperials, names I had never heard of, but by Christ they were great. I had had a few records from the Soul Saints in Germany before this, but they were a very limited press and suddenly stopped coming. However it was like they had thrown the Funk world a lifeline soaked in inspiration. Next came a record from Breakestra on Stones Throw records from California. Then young Kenny Dope and I were record shopping in London and the nice man behind the counter said "Mmm? Keb you might like this one, it's just in". He then produced a 45 on Blow it Hard records called "One note brown". I grabbed one copy and Kenny bought the remaining stock for his pals back home. Kenny was the man who talked me into trying my hand at producing. So I got together with long time friend and very talented man, Nick Van Gelder and formed the Imaginary Visions. Desco split up into Soul Fire and Daptone around this time, but they both kept churning out great music. I then did a gig with The New Mastersounds, the people behind "One note brown". I asked Eddie Roberts, their main man, if I could co-produce them and sign them to my Deep Funk label, the rest is history. New hard Funk bands began to spring up all over the place, from the UK to the US, from Finland to Australia.

Adrian Gibson at the Jazz Cafe in London began to showcase these bands, and in doing so introduced us to Speedometer and the Soul Destroyers a band who's drummer and backbone was another long time Deep Funk collector Malcom Cato. Today things couldn't look better, Kenny and I are starting our own label to specialise in this stuff, KD records. Sharon Jones, The Sugarman Three, The New Mastersounds have all done great albums to reach those who have not yet discovered the joy of the 45.

Mine and many other Funk DJ's playlists are filling up with these new releases, and you are now holding a sampler of this great music, containing tunes that will still sound great in 2,000 years time. Plenty more to come, remember the curator has a masterplan.