Coleco – Campfire Funk / Sharmaji Feat. Maggie Horn – Break Your Heart 12” (Soul Motive)

This is 12” number three from Bristol’s Soul Motive and once again they are really pushing the dubstep sound into strange and wonderful territories. SMR001 was a fantastic 12” featuring TRG and Joker it’s the one with the legendary beast that is Snake Eater on it, you now the one it sounds like the dirty south of hiphop meats grime down an ally and has a big fight. SMR002 was just as insane yet on a completely different tip it featured spaghetti western style dubstep from Forsaken and Ben Blackmoor. I really haven’t heard much like that before in my life, country and western honky ton style guitar and piano’s over some serious bass. So we come to the third release SMR003 and again they bring the different vibes along.

The A-side features a broken beat meets euphoric funk number Campfire Funk by Coleco, it comes on like a deep bassy Chemical Brothers or something and it fits in so well with the Soul Motive collective sound. The crackle of a campfire brings the track in as organic percussion builds into melodic guitar riffs. It’s nice to hear some really big break beats in dubstep as well, these ones sound huge and you could easily imagain a full band playing this track. It really lives up to Soul Motives moto of Emotive, Innovative and Timeless Music.

Onto the flip now and you are in for a real treat from Brooklyn producer Sharmaji and the vocal talents of Maggie Horn. Break Your Heart is a soulful, spooky 2-stepper with an emotive vocal hook that rides effortlessly on top of skipping garage beats and some big punchy funky bongo rhythms. This has to be my favourite track on the 12” I can’t get the hook out of my head. It’s all so dark and uplifting like a melancholic shuffle on a dark and dirty dance floor. The bass is deep and driving with a bit of a growl to add some extra dirt, it really finishes off the 12” nicely.

Soul Motive bring it to the table yet again with some very different vibes, oh yeah I forgot to mention that the artwork for each record is awesome. I mean check out the first one for some old skool style jazz posses from Joker or the second for Forsaken posing with a police horse while dressed as cowboys. This one features a nice campfire scene inside a dirty wearhouse that has now been torn down. You also get a password to email to the label, which lets you get some nice 320 mp3’s so you can listen from the comfort of your computer. What more could you want from a label, I look forward to seeing what they drop next.

www.soulmotive.co.uk