Review: The Mighty Mocambos - A Higher Frequency (Mocambos Records)

Party breaks and heavy funk is what The Mighty Mocambos are all about and they've turned up with a new album on, 'A Higher Frequency'! 

Your favourite funk band from Hamburg are literally 'Back And Better' with a new album that's was, wait for it audiophiles. recorded recorded live to tape at the legendary MPS Studio with a nine-piece band!

And the bizarre thing is, in my head I've associated this band as a 'raw' funk/and breaks combo except for the 2009 album, 'The Is Gizelle Smith & The Mighty Mocambos' with the said Gizelle Smith on vocals.  Perhaps it was too easy to make comparisions with Sharon Jones (RIP)/Daptone but whether it's the MPS Studio vibe (MPS label and Villingen studios in Germany: or even "W. Germany" at their 60/70s peak?), the studio's historic Bösendörfer grand piano and Hammond organ, or the Black Forest of a Funk gâteau (Ed. that's Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte to you).

It's pretty jazzy too with some excellent horns and flute plus the vocals of Carlton Jumel Smith on 'Can't Stop The Fire' and whilst there's a couple of questionable lyrics on 'Back and Better' but you can't fault the vocals of Nichola Richards so we can overlook that as this is a classy 10-track album.

Kicking off with what sounds like 70s TV themes 'Open The Gate' (San Francisco cop show?), 'Get Loose' (prisoner on the run?) and 'Spinnig' (psych-drug drop out?) with some great organ and flute before 'Sweet Company' goes a bit more 60s library.

If you think you know The Mighty Mocambos, believe the news that 'A Higher Frequency' is "Outernational funk, soulful jazz, cinematic textures and psych-flavored breaks and beats…" so much so, these guys have gone from raw to fully baked (Ed. shouldn't that be 'break-ed'?)

Artist: The Mighty Mocambos 

Title: A Higher Frequency 

Release date: 6th June, 2025

Label: Mocambos Records
Cat. No: TBC

Format: Vinyl LP / Digital / Bandcamp

SASCHA WEISE drums
VICTOR KOHN bass
BJÖRN WAGNER guitar
GUILLAUME MÉTENIER grand piano, organ & clavinet
BERNHARD HUMMER baritone & tenor saxophones
BEN GREENSLADE-STANTON trombone
SEBASTIAN DRESCHER trumpet, flugelhorn & electric phin
NICHOLA RICHARDS percussion & vocals
DANIEL KIMAZ flutes