Nascente’s global funk train arrives in Eastern Europe with the release of Eastern Bloc Funk Experience: Psych-Funk, Satellite Soul and Cold War Disco. Having visited the warmer climes of Brazil, Cuba, Caribbean, South Africa and beyond with selectors like Andy Smith, Quantic & Hugo Mendez (Sofrito) on board, Nascente arrives behind the iron curtain and serves up a revelatory new experience. On this mix put together exclusively for Paris DJs, album compiler Phil Meadley features some of the best tracks from the compilation. "Don't believe the lies you've been reading for so many years; the West was feeding you merciless propaganda! The truth must finally be revealed... Funk was born in the USSR. It was first played and sung by the Red Army Choir in Moscow's Red Square, and after that toured Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and East Berlin. This CD tells a story that has never been told before; the story of Eastern Bloc Funk." Yuriy Gurzhy (Russendisko).

It’s a moot point whether it was possible to feel the funk behind the Iron Curtain, but thanks to DJs Yuriy Gurzhy and Phil Meadley a window has been opened that suggests a few brave musical souls were aiming at the feet. Czechoslovakia’s Marta Kubisová and Hungary’s Sarolta Zalatnay feature here, and are well known from being compiled elsewhere. But this comp goes further into both those countries and East Germany, Poland and Yugoslavia. Cherry-picking the otherwise Schlager or jazz-filled catalogues of artists who made it onto state-run labels makes Eastern Bloc Funk Experience a pretty consistent listen, leaning towards the disco-funk, jazz-prog, soundtrackish end of things. “Igraj Sa Njom” from Yugoslavia-based Serb Ljurbomir Sedlar betrays a fondness for Santana. “Za Góra Gór” by Grazyna Lobaszeweska & Ergo Band would – despite the language barrier – fit snugly on a Blaxploitation soundtrack. “Disco King” by East Germany’s Gruppe Centrum begins as a ringer for Talking Heads’ "Life During Wartime" (even though it's from 1977, three years before the T Heads’s track). There’s nothing musically earth-shattering here, but it’s still an essential peak at a rarely seen side of pop’s pre-Glasnost coin.