Dojo Cuts Featuring Roxie Ray - Dojo Cuts Featuring Roxie Ray (2009)

A strong, noteworthy debut album from the Australian band, which strikes an excellent balance between the authentic aesthetics of old soul and its own modern sound. The sound fits well with the vintage soul/funk revival of the late 2000s: live, concise and slightly raw, with a spirit of old Stax and early Daptone, a powerful rhythm section, expressive horns and Roxie Ray's vocals that give the music the emotional intensity it needs.
The band formed in Sydney, far from the traditional centers of American soul, and in 2008 emerged as a group that built on hard, "dirty" and maximally live funk. In their debut on the Australian platform Triple J, their sound was compared to that of artists such as Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Breakestra and The Bamboos. The musicians used the aesthetics of old music not as a simple imitation, but as a basis for their own compositions. This is a good example of how by the end of the 2000s the soul and funk revival had become an international phenomenon, reaching far beyond the borders of the United States.

Gabriel Roth (Bosco Mann), one of the defining figures of the modern soul revival, a key figure in the world of Daptone Records and The Dap-Kings, described the album as “discipline, taste, the correct use of pauses and the space between notes, where each instrument has its own role. The groove is at the heart of the music. The bass, drums, guitar and horns work in harmony with each other, while leaving enough space for Roxie Ray’s vocals.”

Dojo Cuts understands exactly that true groove is born when musicians know when not to overdo the music. This is where the precise pauses, the concise guitar lines, the tight bass and the carefully placed brass accents come from. As a result, the debut album can be seen as a raw, energetic and extremely confident start: already on the first record, it found its place between the classic soul of the 1960s and the contemporary deep funk scene.