On booty duty: Is Ben & Lex's Haterz the tune of 2009 so far?

Sometimes Sean returns with another selection of the week's top baile funk, Bmore, booty and bass flavoured breakbeat. And this time out, he's sitting on a veritable diamond in the rough

This week for me sees the release of one of the strongest tracks of the year. Ben & Lex's Haterz drops on Future Perfect and it slams! A catchy re-sampled bass line sits under searing rap hooks and beats that vary in style but not in quality. It's impressed me so much that I've awarded it a rare five stars in the review section later this week. These west country boys are no strangers to the bass heavy breaks and rap mash-up: I drafted them in a couple of months back to remix K.GoL’s Pusher on my own Fly Beat Music label. Make sure to check them both out.

A new release that almost passed me by with its deceiving title is Funk Mundial's The Rio Baile Funk Mixes, out on Man Germany. Shouldn’t that read “remixes”? Funk Mundial is an amalgamation of baile funk with more European forms of dance music, and artists like The Count & Sinden, Riva Starr and Crookers are all contributing towards the label. However this remix EP takes it back to Brazil via DJ Sandrinho and more, with the original sound of baile funk reworking some of the previous output from the imprint.

Daniel Haaksman is the guy behind Man Recordings, and is pretty much the chap that broke baile funk into Europe with the release of the Rio Baile Funk compilation series. This is similar to what San Francisco-based Bersa Disco is doing with the Argentinean nueva cumbia sound. It's a strictly rhythm-led style which makes it a really interesting scene to dive into from a breaks perspective. There is traditionally a hell of a lot of accordion going on in much of this music, but don't let that put you off. It has recently been crossing over into Bmore, dubstep and hyphy territory, so it’ll be interesting to see how well it can sync into UK breaks.

Last but not least is something new I've been wanting to squeeze in to the blog from Cheaper Thrills, the label that seems to be side-stepping fidget in favour of fresher sounds. High Rankin's No Money For Guns EP delivers two tracks that cut in to breaks territory from a dubstep/wobble perspective, called Bubble & Squeak and Beak Street, and both are well worthy of your attention.