When seventies-style funk/electro-pop meets modern hip hop and ska, you’ve pretty much got The Turner Brothers. With new single ‘Money’, we get exactly that; serious soul-funk groove and hip hop vocals on the verses, jangly off-beat guitar and hip-swinging bass goodness spliced seamlessly into horn-section stabs and ska-funk choruses. It’s a brilliant track, the chorus catchier than those annoying little grass seeds that stick in your clothes and refuse to let go. And that’s pretty catchy.
There’s a mixture of the nutty boys and the 2Tone scene in there with nods to Madness and the Specials, mixed with jazzy soul/funk like Jamiroquai or the Brand New Heavies, but the Turner Brothers – a ten-piece line-up, no less, fronted by brothers (the clue’s in the name) Pat and Tony Turner – have taken elements of all their influences and seriously mixed them up, coming out with a sound all of their own.
On ‘Money’, it really does hook, the brass section adding little frissons of excitement atop the hip hop funk, and it really isn’t relinquishing its hold any time soon. ‘Money’ really is a serious ear-worm party-tune, and in 2020 that’s really no bad thing at all.
See the video for ‘Money’, and follow the Turner Brothers, on Facebook.
Review by Alex Holmes.