23 Apr 2021
Zapp – 1980 – Zapp
Zapp deserve recognition as one of the great pioneers in bringing electronic production into funk music, not to mention for simply being one of the funkiest acts around. This, their first album under the name (after a few obscure outings as the Human Body), brought...
28 Mar 2021
Funkadelic – 1973 – Cosmic Slop
‘Cosmic Slop’ can be summed up as the ultimate paradox in the Funkadelic canon. While the band sounds cleaner here than ever before, the subject material is decidedly freaky. It also is the album with the ‘smallest’ incarnation of the band. After the cast of...
25 Jan 2021
Commodores - 1975 – Caught In The Act
The sophomore slump wasn’t a problem for the Commodores. The band’s first album, Machine Gun, was quite promising, but its sophomore album, Caught in the Act, is even stronger. This superb 1975 LP, which the Commodores produced and arranged with James Carmichael, is more diverse than its mostly up-tempo predecessor. There...
12 Oct 2020
The Undisputed Truth – 1976 – Higher Than High
The Undisputed Truth were a Norman Whitfield creation at Motown in the early 70s. Whitfield was one of Motown’s most celebrated producers after Holland-Dozier-Holland, Smokey Robinson (who produced not only his MIracles recordings but many others on the Marvelettes, Mary Wells, Temptations and even the...
11 Apr 2020
Ripple – 1973 – Ripple
Bomb Killer Funk Album With “I Don’t What It Is But Sure Is Funky” & “Funky Song” . An interracial Michigan soul-funk band, Ripple had an R&B hit in 1973 with “I Don’t Know What It Is but It Sure Is Funky,” and made several...
10 Apr 2020
Sylvia – 1973 – Pillow Talk
Singer/songwriter/producer Sylvia Robinson had two chart toppers: as half of Mickey & Sylvia with “Love Is Strange” and her own solo gold single, the sensuous “Pillow Talk“. Through the All Platinum label with husband Joe Robinson, she was instrumental in the careers of the Moments (she produced and co-wrote their number one...
11 Nov 2019
The Gap Band - 1980 – Gap Band III
When Gap Band III came out in 1980, the Wilson Brothers were widely regarded as true heavyweights in the funk field. Many funk experts will tell you that creatively, they were right up there with the likes of Cameo, Rick James, the Isley Brothers, and the Bar-Kays in the early ’80s. Over...
05 Aug 2019
The JB’s – 1972 – Food For Thought
There are funk bands. And then there are The JB’s. In the early 1970s, James Brown’s production stable was quite simply overflowing with soul. Beyond his own genre-bursting music – which brought funk and R&B to new stratospheres with each platter he released – he...
25 Jun 2019
Dexter Wansel – 1979 – Time Is Slipping Away
When the producer/composer/keyboardist/vocalist recorded four albums for Philadelphia International in the late ’70s, he made certain that all of them were diverse and unpredictable. True to form, Wansel keeps listeners guessing on 1979’s Time Is Slipping Away, which was the last of the four. The LP gets off...
18 Jun 2019
Funkadelic – 1970 – Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow
OUT OF SIGHT!!! If you were to look up “acid funk-rock” in a music dictionary, it’s very likely you’ll see this album cover along side the definition which would be along the lines of “sonic outputs begotten by an ensemble under the influence of some...
28 Aug 2018
Patti Drew – 1967 – Tell Him
Patti Drew’s 1967 debut album “Tell Him” may actually be her least consistent, containing as it does 3 covers of Southern soul staples. It’s perfectly forgiveable, as Capitol was still feeling around for a proper image for the recently soloed lead singer of the Drew-Vels,...
22 Aug 2018
Fuzzy Haskins - 1976 – A Whole Nother Thang
A Whole Nother Thang is the 1976 debut album by Parliament-Funkadelic vocalist Fuzzy Haskins . The album was released by Westbound Records and features heavy participation from various P-Funk musicians. The album features the track “Cookie Jar“, which was later recorded by the P-Funk spin off act Parlet as well as Prince. It is the first P-Funk...
