lunarTUNES

Three special singles made for much pre-release hype, and the remix commissions (EMF, Elastica and Medal to name but three) and soundtracks (Rancid Aliminium, Complicity and There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble) secured since then prove it’s not just the critics that have been impressed by Ian Davenport and Andy Lovegrove.

lunarTUNES opens with one single, ‘Stompy’, a barrage of phat beats, farting bass and spy-funk vibes, and closes with another, the leftfield hip-hop jam ‘Struggler’. In between, we get an assortment of freaky funk, like the bold and brassy stomper ‘Motown Funk’, where Chems bass and Andy Rose’s gruff rap meet in heaven. The skanking dub of ‘Not My Dubplate’ is smokers’ bliss, and elsewhere there are Gospel vocals (‘Not My People’), Gallic influences (‘Café Del Boy’) and House beats – the awesome bass monster ‘Stay Focused’, which wouldn’t sound out of place on La Roc Rocs.

The hype on this Oxford-based duo has been more than justified, and they can be forgiven for that Shirley Bassey remix.