Funkin Days – Made Retro (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Made Retro is, on reflection, a great name for the music made here, suggesting something being constructed in the here and now, but with a deliberate eye on the sounds and sensibilities of an earlier era. All genres evolve, but sometimes it is worth reminding ourselves of how glorious the past often sounded.

Funkin Days takes inspiration from the golden age of soul, funk, and R&B, but this isn’t plunder or plagiarism; Made Retro understands that those familiar building blocks can still be put to work in fresh, interesting ways. The past taking root in the present to build a great musical future.

If opener ‘People’ is all upbeat, funky bass strut and easy confidence, the infectious groove it builds is wrapped in sweeter sonics, a neat blend of dancefloor contagion and dreamscaping, ‘Groovin”, which follows, approaches things from the opposite direction: ambient seduction and drifting soundscapes tethered to just enough beat to keep things in the real world. Dream soul, perhaps?

The title track introduces some cool jazz moves and a seductive James Brown-style on-the-one push. An instrumental, built on enough neo-soul modernity but definitely tipping its hat, undoubtedly a natty Fedora worn at a rakish angle, to those 70s soul progressives.

‘Pictures of You’ takes the atmospheric route even further, its sheer ethereality holding up even when a busier beat joins the throng – the less and the more working perfectly to find a musical sweet spot – and boy, do they find it.

Then ‘When You’re Out’ brings a more singer-songwriter sensibility into the mix, its soul-rock foundations offering another variation on the album’s central theme: familiar musical languages put to fresh new uses, paths well travelled turning into new sonic byways.

What makes Funkin Days work so well is its refusal to merely rehash the past or stay in one sonic lane. Made Retro can deliver the bass-led swagger expected of funk, but is equally comfortable exploring softer, more atmospheric territory. It might reference the past, but the past has rarely sounded this great.