From the beginning, The Herbaliser have had their heads stuck in the past, but their butts have definitely bopping on the dance floor. Self confessed rare groove lovers Jake Wherry and Ollie Teeba have been focusing not only on party breaks and hip hop, but on the funk and soul of yesteryear. In their latest album, Same As it Never Was, The Herbaliser have blended all styles together to bring us an amalgamation of sounds that are all about having a good time. The group now consists of 22 year old Londoner Jessica Darling, whose timeless voice graces the album and long time Easy Access Orchestra collaborators Ralph Lamb and Andy Ross.

Darling’s voice gives the album a lot of depth in On Your Knees, it is almost impossible to believe that this voice belongs to someone so young. Her ability to perfectly capture the style from so many years ago is impressive. On You’re Not All That, with its funky back up singing and Hammond workouts, she goes into overdrive. She becomes a husky, sexy temptress not to be messed with. As usual the boys serve up tasty breakbeats to keep things moving along nicely. Darling also shines on party monster Clap Your Hands, in fact there aren’t many tracks on here that don’t get your toes tapping. This is no sleeper of an album, that’s for sure.

With all this funk and soul you may have think the group has strayed from its hip hop roots, but thankfully no, as Just Won’t Stop features London MC Yungun AKA Essa. His nor’f London accent work in this tale of the ever changing style of hip hop. Some more fat rhymes come courtesy of long time collaborator Jean Grae on Street Karma, with Grae pushing the cautionary tale of the streets in her eloquent MC style. There are only a couple of tracks on here that don’t get a vocal treat, not confined by the need to support a vocal line the boys go left of centre on each, really showing their talent as musicians.

The Herbaliser have brought to the table an incredibly funky workout – the funk and soul influences are far and wide but the essential hip hop groove is woven through. An incredibly musical album, this is going to please wherever it goes.