Karate Boogaloo - Wet Day Timetable (Colemine) [Funk]

Karate Boogaloo are Melbourne's Henry Jenkins on Bass, Hudson Whitlock holding the sticks, Callum Riley tickling his Hammond organ and David Thor armed with a guitar, and don't they play well together. They've been keeping the funk flowing in their city, and increasingly internationally, since 2019 with an unashamedly retro, pleasingly stripped back, tightly locked take on the genre that mostly hovers around a sedate hip hop tempo, and which is recorded in mono onto tape in one take, for vintage twentieth-century sonic authenticity. The quartet have their Access All Areas album dropping in October, the teasing has begun, and the four tracks currently available are making for a very tidy EP. 

Sounding like it was recorded before the band's second coffee had kicked in, "Wet Day Timetable" eases the listener in with a warm, lethargic groove with only Riley's organ showing any restlessness, which finally stirs the others from their slumber to a second-half flourish. The band then set about "Boogers Bounce of Joy", a stripped-back easy cinematic funk groove which wouldn't have sounded out of place in a late sixties picture house; the bass providing a familiar bump whilst Whitlock gives the track an idiosyncratic rhythm skeleton, and Riley injecting an insistent, but playful organ twist.

"Head First" sees the lads enter instrumental soul territory, the organ digging deep inside, whilst the guitar initially opts for a sweeter tone before Thor too closes his eyes and goes deep. Cathartic soul searching done, "Tremendous Fantastic" sees organ and guitar duet again, this time, I imagine, discussing affairs of the heart, the mood lightening, eyes twinkling and smiles all round as fond memories are recounted.

It's a great four-track funk and wordless soul selection - the boys say a lot without moving their lips, and boding well for the album.

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Playlist Companion

Find Karate Boogaloo in the Slow Hop Playlist.