James Brown – Dynamite X

I bought this for Muro’s Funky Drummer edit and didn’t expect much. What I got is pretty much in line with my expectations:
Japanese Readymade’s mix of Sex Machine starts a bit gimmicky but is actually listenable with its new rhythm Jazz Defector pattern.
Couch label owners dZihan & Kamien deliver a truly awful mix of Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose, shifting the beat from the One to a rocky Two and Four.
Cay Taylan is another Couch Records affiliate (pseudonym?) and the Call Me Super Bad is exactly that, but not in the Ebonics meaning.
Fantasia is another remixer from Japan (Toshio Matsuura) and puts a Latin Jazz beat under his version of Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose, which does not excite but at least doesn’t annoy either.
Listen To The Muro Mix of Funky Drummer is very full on with him using almost exclusively original parts, rearranging them, chopping them up and overlaying them with a few sample stutters and turntable scratches, adding a sprinkling of drum programming, which all works OK. You can drop this at the height of an intense funk set and it will work. As a standalone mix it shows its age after a decade and ever since Jorun Bombay’s edit came out, there is no doubt what people want to hear / play.
Captain Funk is another Japanese remixer who has released mostly Break Beat / Big Beat stuff and (under his real name Tatsuya Oe) Electronic Jazz and Experimental stuff. His Cold Sweat Mix is a thin commercial affair not worth listening to a second time.
The next track is a remix of Sunny by a guy called Jun Sasaki and the convoluted title (Funk Master Jb Vs Funk Master Js Hardboiled Remix) is suspect enough. I had to listen to this twice as my daughter repeatedly said “turn the music down, there is an alarm beeping somewhere….”, No,honey, it’s part of the remix.
Next up are Jungle Funk who consist of Doug Wimbish, Vinx and Will Calhoun who at least have some funky pedigree. Their mix of Soul Power is pretty good. It takes the urgency out of the original and makes it a steady pounding affair for the early hours. Very listenable.
Mr. Drunk (Daisuke Sakama) did certainly not Get On A Good Foot as he’s changed a funky 4/4 to a country bumpkin 2/4 beat. Add to that some annoying keyboard stabs and you’ve got a remix you never want to listen to again.
Japanese duo Co-Fusion get another go at Soul Power but this has neither Power, nor Soul. Straight from Hell.
Last remixer is a girl for a change (Keigo Oyamada) who under the name Cornelius gets another go at Call Me Super Bad. She does not come up with any beat for most of the track and instead gives us James’ vocals with some uninspired keyboard tinkling and plonking. What was she thinking!?!?!

So, in total a remix project with only three listenable versions: Readymade’s Sex Machine, Muro’s Funky Drummer and Jungle Funk’s Soul Power.