Shoes - Shoes of Roy (Shoes US)

Aaaand speaking of fantastically polished edits done to near-perfection...You just know it's a good month when the ultra-mysterious Shoes crew unleash a new 12". These guys have been dedicated to re-working some of the best in soul, jazz, funk and disco that often respectfully pay homage to the originals, leaving the musical meat on the bones of the edits they put out. Chunky, romping funk for the dancefloor, Shoes crew admittedly don't release stuff that often but when they do they're bang on, consistently set phazers to stun. We've been doing some snooping around but for the life of us can't figure out who the hell they are. All we know is the label is spearheaded by Earwig, apparently the main man behind one of our favourite edits labels Plimsol (label home to none other than a release by the man whose record we just reviewed below, coincidence? hmmmm you decide).

This killer 4 track monster is a hefty nod to the great Roy Ayers, featuring rubs of 4 of his greats that are seriously well varied, resulting in another perfect record for the bar jocks among us. All these will likely get plays from me but my pick is possibly the euphoric head-nodder, Sunshine, man where the hell was this tune years ago in the "chill-out room" at the local warehouse rave? Running Away's playful broken-house and dubbed out doobie-doo vocal takes precedence in the uptempo cut; and the more 'serious' groove of Superstar hits the spot in a big way with rhodesy noodles and stabs amidst live drums that kick along effortlessly. Finally 2000 Black builds sweetly as the empowering vocal takes control at the break...so go forth and buy this record and 'save the human race', won't you?




As usual, we wholeheartedly advise you to go forth and get this one in the bag, because as you will notice with one quick glance - these Shoes records don't seem to wanna hang around the shelves long.

Ps. also check out their 'Shoes Your Illusion Vols I and II" shiny, tiny silver disc if you haven't already - it's also a must!