Keb Darge Presents Funk for the 21st Century  
 
XLR8R Issue #65

FUNK FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Do Right!/CAN/CD

If you haven't been keeping up with the contemporary funk movement, shame on you, first of all. Second of all, you have a chance for redemption, because Keb Darge has got your back. Known among those hardcore diggers with busted backs and bloody cuticles as one of the best to ever raid record spots. Darge has been making a name for himself Stateside by compiling his rarest and funkiest gems. Now he turns his attention to the cream of the new crop, serving up 14 raw-to-the-bone gems from folks like the Sugarman Three, Speedometer and the inimitable Sharon Jones. Listen and learn, folks, because these records will be tomorrow's sought-after heavyweights. Pete Babb
 
Eye Magazine
November 14, 2003

KEB DARGE PRESENTS FUNK FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Do Right!
4 out 5

DJs who scour thrift stores for obscure funk vinyl from the '60s and '70s seem to have finally exhausted the well, which only means that it's time for new artists to step up to the plate. Scottish DJ Keb Darge made the move to producing his own records last year, and here he compiles the best of modern-day retro funk artists -- like the ex-Desco crew, including Sharon Jones and Sugarman Three -- who aim to replicate not only the killer grooves but the raw production that made those original records funkier than thou. This marks the inaugural release for Do Right, a label run by Toronto Movement DJ John Kong, and it's a real corker. MB

 
Now Toronto Magazine
October 31 - Nov 6 2003

VARIOUS KEB DARGE PRESENTS FUNK FOR THE 21ST CENTURY (DO RIGHT!) NNNN

Deeply digging UK DJ Keb Darge -- the exalted grand poobah of the funk revival -- departs from his typical singles comp formula of gathering wildly obscure vintage 7-inch treasures and instead offers a sampling of the new joints being created by contemporary retro-funk combos like London's New Mastersounds and New York's Sugarman 3. Apart from the previously unreleased Speedometer vocal take on Wait Up and Connie Price's The Badger, most funk-natics will have the vinyl versions of most of these tunes. This CD-only set is really aimed at the non-collector crowd, and Funk For The 21st Century offers an excellent survey of the funk that's been going on since James Brown last fired the JBs. (TIM PERLICH)