British Hustle
Various Artists (CD)
Soul Jazz Records (UK) / 2003 / SJR CD82
CD in jewel case with slipcover
Producer: Various
- British Hustle 6:40 Hi Tension
- Solar Heat 6:36 The Olympic Runners
- Put The Word Out 6:37 Heatwave
- Southern Freez 5:41 Freez
- Children Of The Ghetto/Stanhope Street 8:54 The Real Thing
- What Are You Gonna Do? 3:22 Kandidate
- Dancing In Outer Space 5:36 Atmosfear
- Don't Tell Me 5:34 Central Line
- Saoco 6:49 Gonzalez
- London Town 3:30 Light Of The World
- Burning Up 4:39 Imagination
- Somebody Help Me 7:17 Beggar & Co.
- Talking About Love 6:25 FBI
British Hustle is a very weak offering of Disco dance tracks from the 1970s and 80s. With the exception of some great tracks from Freeez, Central Line and Atmosfear it clearly shows that the British offferings were lacking compared to music from other parts of the world. It's not horrible, just mundane.
Hearing this CD start off with Hi Tension's "British Hustle" pretty much sealed its fate early on as I had thrown the album away back in the day for its vocals. I'd put my hard earned money into some other CD and pass on British Hustle, which is surprising since Soul Jazz has put out some interesting titles in the past.
Buy from:
Amazon.com (US)
Amazon.co.uk (UK)
Submitted by DiscoMusic.com (3705)
Comments:
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Dec 07, 05 | 8:28 pmThis CD typifies what is being released nowadays in the name of the 'good groove'.
Revisionists and younger guys who didn't experience the time period first hand, think they can release any old (comparative) rubbish and pull the wool over people's eyes. Hungry for 'fresh' material, instead of looking at more obvious contenders, they immediately go for more obscure offerings and then give it a 'classic' moniker. They're trying to be ultra hip and failing miserably. Only 3 tracks on this compilation could be dubiously considered 'classic UK Jazz Funk', the rest are also rans.
This simply will not do.
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Oct 06, 05 | 10:38 pm
It's a tad unfair to slate British Funk on the whole, because of this release. I can agree that its lack lustre, but that's only because of the choice of material on it. It is supposedly a collection of classic British Funk, but doesn't quite represent it well. Sometimes, compilations like these are weak because they cannot get the rights to better songs. Really and truly, a much better example of The Real Thing's disco era releases, would be "Can You Feel The Force." Also "Puttin' It Onya" or even "Sir Dance A Lot" by Olympic Runners is certainly a more funkier option in my view. There is also nothing by Incognito on this CD, which is a big over sight as the band have contributed quite a lot to Black British music over the years.
Have to agree with Buckaroo here...whereas the compilation is not really representative of the UK Jazz/Funk bands of the time to dismiss it out of hand is unfair and does a diservice to the genre as a whole. Don't be put of by what you have seen written here, there was good stuff being made in the UK at this time..it just needs further and more in depth investigation.