Getdown Entertainment (label)
22 May 2012 (released)
06 May 2012
This is ridiculous! I can’t stop dancing long enough to write this damned review.
Since the late sixties and through the seventies and into the modern day there has always been Funk. Whether it was James Brown and the original ‘One’ or the Parliament/Funkadelic axis or Graham Central Station or Cameo or shitloads of others there has been Funk. For me, and thousands/millions of others, the ringmaster of Funk was and is George Clinton – if he isn’t involved then he is an influence and now we have a new project where he is involved and a rolling crew of around 90 stars from EVERYWHERE are together to lay down some glorious over the top and beyond belief Funk.
Right outa the box this is an ass-shaker of an album. A huge bassline courtesy of John Heintz leads into blasting horns from the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and a delicious guitar line from Dumstaphunk’s Ian Neville. The drums and percussion are furious with a Latinate undertone and all narrated by P-Funk’s Michael Clip Payne – 4 minutes of the healthiest funk on the planet.
And somehow it doesn’t all run downhill either. This features 90 musicians and singers and writers from the likes of P-Funk, Blackalicious, Graham Central Station, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Dumpstaphunk, Galactic, Warren Haynes Band, Derek Trucks Band, The Lee Boys, Sun Ra Arkestra, Yo Mama's Big Fat Booty Band, Kool and the Gang and Fishbone – this is royalty and the result is so good it is almost illegal.
You have to listen to a number like ‘I Will Wait For You’ with vocals by Laura Reed and Backing Vocals from George Clinton, Sidney Barnes, Garry Shider, Belita Woods. A wonderfully lazy sounding track with tons of soul smooch and the most louche horns in many a year, or the hard P-Funk of ‘Platinum’ with John-Paul Miller’s bass and horns from Dirty Dozen and Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band cut through with Tyler Simmons B-3 organ and Frank Mapstone’s Fender Rhodes.
My favourite number is the one most like Funkadelic in their prime – ‘The Beauty Of Pretty’ – vocal led and almost psychedelic but brilliantly played and tight.
No secret, I love this album. I would say that it is the album I have been looking for years, the kind of album that finds its way into your soul and takes up residence.
Thank you John Heintz, John-Paul Miller and Derrick Johnson for getting it all together back in New Orleans and thank you George Clinton for forty years of joy.
