DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

Nookie – Free The Funk EP

2003

  It’s Friday, the weekend looms forward, offering you space to place more music into your lives. See what I did there? The Good Looking carnival of characters and concertos makes its way into the next section of this Nookie EP, ‘Free The Funk’, from 2003.

   Nookie had pretty much raised up into legendary status some time before this release. While it’s his solo work that remains as prolific as ever, many of his remixes hold a similar status. The age old question of “Original Vs Remix, is there a better remix than an original?”, is nearly always fraught with a lot more hesitation when Nookie is given the remix duties. I could give you a few right off the top of my head: ‘Inner City Life’, ‘River Nijer’, ‘Rebound’ by Personelle, ‘High Time’, ‘Flammable’ on Sub Base, and ‘Finest Illusion’ & ‘Soul Promenade’ which are yet another of the anthemic 10” remixes on Moving Shadow..the list is bloody extensive and nearly everyone of them is as good as the original for me. He is a producer with skills that are extremely rare, in that he finds the craft within every production. There are not many like him. 

   We hit the second record on ‘Free The Funk’ today and await no more the sublime work of Gavin ‘Nookie’ Chueng. Without further ado, let’s get this plate spinning on the 1210s. 

    On Side C, Nookie takes things into ‘Another Dimension’ in that special way of his, discharging a strand of inter galactic fibers out into a sermon of formidable functionality. Nookie’s balance of funky grooves and anesthetic comfort is typified with music like this. I also love the way the red images on this label reflect the main sleeves blue and red colours, picking up the theme of the EPs title font and little red DJ figure at the bottom, along with the communication symbols inside the gatefold. This music definitely brings a summer swagger into your life. 

   ‘Bad Habits’ on Side D is our final track from Nookie on this EP. The odd thing about this side is its switch to 45RPM for the last track. Whether this is the ‘Bad Habit’ in question and putting tunes on the wrong speed had become a habit, I don’t know? It’s one of those tunes that I put in the top tiers of Gav’s GLR releases though. Deeply infectious, incredibly streamlined and fucking world class engineering. The amount of electronic tinkering and techno tainted infusion in this piece of music is a thing of wonderment. The bass is also one of those teasing sounds which I feel has my bones itching with satisfaction. Nookie rolls out a real Percy right here. Amazing stuff!

    That’s the lot for this EP and for all the 2 x 12” gatefolds. Next week we move into a one-off Test Press of the last EP in the series, which got as far as the first 12” only. 

   Have a good weekend and spin those tunes!