Brother Soul / Ramsey Lewis – Cookies / Back In The USSR

Genre: Soul / Funk / Breakbeat
Year Released: 2017 (BAB001)
Original releases: (Melvin Bliss – Synthetic Substitution 1973 / Sweet Daddy Floyd - I Just Can't Help Myself 1978)

Description:

This double A-Side was the first 45 issue on the label Breaks & Beats, taken from Breakbeat Lou’s infamous Ultimate Breaks comps back in 86, and is a certifiable cornerstone of Hip-Hop production. 

“Cookies” by Brother Soul has that tough, stripped-back late-60s / early-70s funk energy where the rhythm section does almost all the work. The track is driven by:

dry, upfront drums,
clipped guitar patterns,
repetitive bass movement,
and a loose but disciplined pocket.

There’s very little excess arrangement. Instead, the groove cycles hypnotically, which is exactly why records like this became prized by breakbeat collectors and hip-hop DJs decades later. “Cookies” feels less like a polished studio composition and more like a functional rhythm tool — music designed to lock dancers into motion.

The roughness is part of the appeal. It has the slightly gritty, room-sound quality associated with regional funk 45s that later became central to rare groove culture.

On the flip side, Ramsey Lewis’s take on Back in the U.S.S.R. completely reframes the original. Instead of reproducing The Beatles version directly, Lewis turns it into sophisticated jazz-funk with electric piano textures, tighter rhythmic syncopation, and a more groove-oriented structure.

What’s fascinating is how naturally the song adapts. The original Beatles composition already had strong rhythmic momentum, but Lewis emphasizes:

rolling basslines,
swinging drum feel,
jazz phrasing,
and extended instrumental interplay.

The result sits somewhere between soul jazz, jazz-funk, and post-Motown groove music. It’s less about the novelty of covering a Beatles song and more about extracting its rhythmic potential.

As a 7-inch pairing, the record works beautifully because both sides are ultimately about rhythm-first reinterpretation:

Brother Soul distills funk down to its raw essentials,
while Ramsey Lewis transforms pop songwriting into jazz-driven groove architecture.

The format itself enhances the experience. These tracks belong on 45:

short,
immediate,
punchy,
and designed to hit hard the moment the needle drops.

For collectors, this kind of release represents the sweet spot where soul, funk, jazz, and DJ culture intersect — records that may not have been massive mainstream hits, but became enormously valuable in dance-floor and sampling culture because of the strength of their grooves rather than their chart history.