RELEASES FINAL SINGLE IN RUN-UP TO NEW ALBUM:
“ONE IN A MILLION”
STREAM ON YOUTUBE HERE || ALL SERVICES HERE
TAKEN FROM NEW ALBUM:
‘REACCLIMATE’
OUT 20 OCTOBER – PRE-SAVE HERE
+ UK TOUR THIS NOVEMBER
“The one-man busker armed with a battered acoustic guitar and a bank of electronics is cranking up a holy roller groove and the audience is going wild… huge compulsive electronic funk grooves […] mesh perfectly with the acoustic-driven neo busking anthems.” – Louder Than War
Multi-instrumentalist and one man army – FUNKE AND THE TWO TONE BABY – has shared “One in a Million”, the lead single from his forthcoming album ‘Reacclimate’ (out 20 October).
STREAM “ONE IN A MILLION” ON YOUTUBE HERE || ALL SERVICES HERE
A groove-driven pop anthem that sees Chic-esque funk guitars metamorphosise into glitchy, stuttering electronic melodies, “One in a Million’ is Funke and the Two Tone Baby’s first futuristic foray into “making dance music with dance processes”.
Where Funke’s previous albums were made by “beatboxing and tap-tap-tapping on a little button-push drum machine”, “One in a Million” and the forthcoming record see the artist allow his entire writing process to be dictated by his rig. “It totally dictates my compositions and forces me to get creative by its limitations,” he explains. “I added an automated drum machine, a kaoss pad and some synths and was suddenly like: “I can actually make proper dance music now!”.
The go-to closer for Funke’s live shows, the hedonistic new track has been under constant deconstruction and evolution before it was finally finished while driving through a tunnel after a riotous performance at 2022’s Isle of Wight Festival.
Fusing elements of classic funk with acoustic rhythms and dance-driven production, “One in a Million” fuses together the best of the likes of Beck, Chemical Brothers and Soulwax. Funke and the Two Tone Baby explains:
“I’ve always tried to bridge a gap between dance and acoustic music. You don’t find a dude with an acoustic guitar playing pumping house tunes. It’s my USP: it throws people off guard and you can see the cogs turning in the audience’s eyes.”
“One in a Million” also follows recent singles “O Great Mother”, “Can’t Stop The Music” and “Shake It Up” and is the final track to be taken from Funke and the Two Tone Baby’s forthcoming album ‘Reacclimate’ (out 20 October).
Funke’s first album in five years, ‘Reacclimate’ finds his output updated and re-invigorated across 10 brand new tracks and heralds the beginning of a new dawn for the artist as he simultaneously pays homage to his past whilst looking assuredly to the future. He explains:
“I’ve never felt more excited about, or felt more creative with my music, my career and this journey. I’ve stepped up every possible element and I think sonically this album is head and shoulders above anything I’ve done before. It shows five years of development and pure joy for the art of what I do.”
A thematic reflection of Funke’s own growth and re-invention, the record touches on everything from navigating the world post-Covid, to his own personal journey following the sudden loss of his partner to cancer, and the determination to come back into the world fighting. But, above all, ‘Reacclimate’ is a record about positivity. Funke adds:
“My partner died in November 2021 after a very sudden diagnosis. I grieved heavily for months but then the reality of my job came spinning back around, so I used it to get me back into the world. I got my head down and started writing, and I poured all of my sadness into songwriting. I came at it from a direction of growth: to try and pull the positivity from the grief. I’ve always been a positive person and if anything, this cemented the fact that I should remain a beacon of positivity. I wanted that reflected in this record.”
Capturing a sound that is characteristically hard to pigeon-hole, ‘Reacclimate’ weaves its way through blues, funk, electronica and big-beat with an eclectic sense of conviction. Having worked on his set-up as the world emerged out of lockdown, Funke added programmed beats and new loops as he forged a sound that was reawakened more powerful than ever. He explains:
“It seems impossible for anyone to pin me down, but I love it. I’ve somehow stumbled into a place where I’m making music on a machine that only I can control, in a way that no-one can seem to describe. But people are going nuts for it live, and this record shows fully what I can achieve.”
Funke and the Two Tone Baby has been existing on the periphery of the grassroots circuit for over a decade.After starting out in pubs playing blues covers with just a guitar and a loop pedal, 2023 has seen Funke and the Two Tone Baby appear at over 20 major festivals this summer including Boomtown, Camp Bestival, Boardmasters, 2000 Trees and more.
He also played his 1000th show to-date at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, with his set on the Greenpeace stage featured on both Channel 4 News and in the Guardian Guide as one of the Top 6 Picks for the Thursday.
Fresh off the back of his non-stop start to the year and with his album launch show at the renowned Ramsgate Music Hall selling out in a matter of days, Funke will also be heading out on a 12-date tour across the UK this November. Full dates and details below.
UK LIVE DATES 2023
OCTOBER
20 RAMSGATE Ramsgate Music Hall [SOLD OUT]
NOVEMBER
08 SHEFFIELD Yellow Arch
09 LEEDS Hyde Park Book Club
10 GLASGOW Hug & Pint
11 CARLISLE The Source Collective
15 CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach
16 BRISTOL The Jam Jar
17 SOUTHAMPTON Joiners
18 HASTINGS The Brass
22 LONDON Paper Dress Vintage
23 BIRMINGHAM Hare & Hounds
24 EXETER Bomba!
Tickets available now here.
FUNKE AND THE TWO TONE BABY – NEW SINGLE: “ONE IN A MILLION”
STREAM ON YOUTUBE HERE || ALL SERVICES HERE
NEW ALBUM: ‘REACCLIMATE’ – COMING 20 OCTOBER
FOR MORE INFORMATION
