Funki Porcini is James Braddell, born in London in 1962, and one of the foundational voices of Ninja Tune's downtempo era. He spent a decade in Italy writing music for film and television before coming home and signing to Ninja Tune in 1994, and you can hear that cinematic training in everything he does. Long, patient, widescreen tracks built from dusty breaks, deep bass and film-score atmosphere. Hed Phone Sex (1995) is the defining record, and 'Long Road' is on it. How it was built is the good part. Braddell filled his sampler with sounds hoovered up from charity-shop records and promotional flexi-discs, pitch-shifted his own voice, spent weeks getting single drum loops right, and went out into the field to record real-world sound, including chunks of ice thrown across a frozen lake. He put out four albums between 2021 and 2025, most recently Modern Hymns for Modern Things. He's also a filmmaker.
From the notes for EKHO Sonic Chill #8 · fact-checked Oct 4, 2026.
The records
Where I played them
