The  New Mastersounds are leading the funk revival with their four-piece band of guitar, bass, drums and organ. With a career that began with a DJ Keb Darge produced single and now five albums released the band are a global funk phenomenon.  Mundovibe caught up with band leader Eddie Roberts to discuss their rise to the top of the funk heap.

Funk music is hard to pin down — much like jazz it’s really beyond defining. But if there’s one sure thing about it, it’s that it just keeps on grooving and when it hits you, you feel no pain. And even though funk as we knew it may have passed with the death of its Godfather, James Brown, there’s more than enough reason to believe that this sweaty, rhythm heavy sound is back and better than ever. Call it the baby boomerang effect on music: kids of baby boomers (and the parents too) have shown a renewed fervor for vinyl records, analogue sounds, 60’s &70’s soul along with classic funk of bands like the Meters, Grant Green, James Brown and a whole slew of more obscure bands. They’re digging the funk.

And it’s not just music fans that are sharing the love for funk: a whole  new generation of retro-funk bands have emerged on the scene, injecting a  new breath of hot, sweaty air and a  new “deep funk” sensibility to the music. Bands like the U.S.’s Breakestra, Australia’s the Bamboos and England’s   New Mastersounds pay homage to funk’s golden era while moving the sound forward with a more DJ-like approach that is less congested and more spacious and beat heavy.

Leading the way from across the pond are Leeds, England’s The  New Mastersounds. One can be forgiven if this group of four aren’t on their list of leading funk bands – that is, if you’ve never heard their music. Upon listening to their deep, open-ended and warm sound it’s apparent why the  New Mastersounds are blowing up on the international funk scene and are now taking America one show at a time. These guys get it and clearly want others to join in.

Their live giging has taken them around the world and introduced their sound to a growing legion of fans. As well as playing club gigs in France, Spain, Belgium and Italy, the band toured the US and Japan and the US is becoming a second home for the band. They appear regularly at the House of Blues, Gratefulfest and have performed at the prestigious High Sierra Music Festival annually since 2005 and are constantly touring and delivering their fat funk to dedicated fans and  new ones alike. Their hard work is paying off as the  New Mastersounds are being “buzzed up” by those in the know.

The U.S. funk revival is a recent one in comparison to the UK’s which began in the late ‘80s with DJs like Keb Darge who coined the term “deep funk” along with Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy (read our Snowboy interview here). Ironically enough, Darge had only discovered this sound after selling off his original soul record collection and being left with what he had originally referred to as “junk music” that he picked up in the United States on his many jaunts to find northern soul records there and in the UK. Though Britain had not been part of the initial funk wave of the ‘60s-‘70s, the scene grew as an underground subculture with DJs laying down the funk for hungry audiences at venues like London’s Club Ormones.

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