Australia may not be the first place you think of when it comes to a rennaissance sound for classic 80’s style soul, boogie and funk, but that has to change now that self-styled “Sweetfunk” duo Confection released their debut album late in 2007 and are now placed firmly at the forefront of the neo-boogie groove movement. With a sound that harkens back to classic 80’s sounds like The S.O.S Band, Prince and Evelyn “Champagne” King but manages to sound uniquely fresh and modern, Confection compound a lifetime of influences with a whole new bag of natural born sticky sweet funk, from new single “I’ve Gotta Thing (4U),” with it’s synth-driven rubbery groove, the spiky Minneapolis-funk of “Put Me On Your Playlist” to the luscious undulations of “Fantasisin’” and the sublime “Stuck,” a sparse and riveting slowjam that takes the album home. Over the last year Confection have been garnering rave reviews worldwide for the quality, originality and authenticity of their unique sweetfunk sound, and dancefloors from Sydney to Paris, from London to New York are resonating with their timeless groove and melodies. Confection’s constituent ingredients are Joshua Beagley (guitar, keyboards, production) and Juanita Tippins (vocals) from Sydney, Australia. Prior to Confection, Beagley founded, produced and performed with Australia’s biggest ever funk act SWOOP, scoring hits in Australia, Japan, UK and Indonesia and receiving several nominations for ARIA Awards. He has subsequently been involved in other Sydney funk outfits Professor Groove and The Booty Affair and The Fatback 4Way. Tippins has had a successful career as a session vocalist and backing singer with many of Australia’s largest acts before concentrating on Confection, where her sublime vocals come to the fore. Her favourite all-time singers are Donny Hathaway, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Luther Vandross, Mahalia Jackson, Evelyn King, Prince and Chaka Khan. She has a Tongan Islander background and moved to Sydney from Auckland when she was 17. Confection started strong with a release on the UK’s hottest soul label Soulchoonz. The funksoul bible Blues and Soul Magazine rated their debut release “Single Of The Fortnight,” calling “I Choose U” “an almost perfect example of the bouncy, retro modern soul groove” while Soul Express.com loved the slow groover “Fantasisin’”: “The groove is soulful, funky and full of live instrumentation – check out the slap bass! Simply delicious! Let's face it, the song simply grooves. This is sheer heaven!” Since then track after track from the debut album has been lauded as a future classic. Confection formed in 2006 while recording a track at Beagley’s One Stop Funk Shop studio, the duo then spent the next year recording the 10 tracks that fill the Confection self-titled debut album with a hand-picked crew of specialist funk aficionados. Although Beagley played or programmed most of the music on the album, a number of friends from his other bands (Professor Groove and The Booty Affair, Fatback 4Way) were brought in to add their special groove skills. Terepai Richmond, widely regarded as Australia’s best drummer (Missy Higgins, Whitlams, DIG etc) and Michael di Francesco (Van She) provided critical groove elements on drums and bass respectively, with Paul Gray (Wa Wa Nee) and Richard Sanford (Delta Goodrem) guesting on keys, Sunil de Silva contributing percussion and a number of Juanita’s singing cohorts (Jade McRae, Mahalia Barnes, Rob Edwards, Prinnie Stevens, Miss P) called on for backing vocal duties. Confection always set out to create classic funksoul anthems like those of yesteryear - old school synth and slap-bass driven groovers and slowjams, the sort of songs that sound killer on the radio and phat on the dancefloor, with massive choruses and sinewy elastic rhythms. Beagley has a wide-ranging knowledge and love of black funk and pop stemming from his long career as a performer and DJ, which certainly permeates the Confection sound. “I particularly like the records from when big funk bands merged with synth technology, like CAMEO, Midnight Star, early Prince, SOS Band for example. Their records all had a lot of live instrumentation blending with drum machines and synths, and it is that kind of organic-electro interaction that really works for me.” The result is a debut filled with delectafunkable extended jamz, wall to wall sonic sweetfunk. Step into the candystore.