Pointer Sisters 'Hypnotized'

Pointer Sisters 'Hypnotized'

Hello stranger. It's been waaaay too long since the last post on this mutha. Spurred back in to action by this particular gem from the Pointer Sisters, covering Fleetwood Mac on a funky space rock tip. A really awesome groove to this one. Littered with stylish guitar inflections, nonsensical but beautifully executed lyrics about hypnosis and UFOs and eerie synth drifts inhabiting the background. Nice one ladies.

WAR 'I'm About Somebody'

WAR 'I'm About Somebody'

Obscure funk/reggae crossover tune from WAR's first album for RCA released in 1982. The 'somebody' they sing about on this slow-burning low tempo juggernaut must be Dr. John AKA Mack Rebennack AKA 'The Night Tripper' surely? A Google search brings up nothing on this song. Any further interpretations warmly welcomed...

Letta Mbulu 'Mahlalela (Lazy Bones)'

Letta Mbulu 'Mahlalela (Lazy Bones)'

Check out the voice on Letta if you haven't done so already. Lawd knows what she's inferring about lazy people, but this track is enough to get even the most entrenched couch potato up on two feet and busting a few moves.

Annette Peacock 'Pony'

Annette Peacock 'Pony'

Annette Peacock married jazz bassist Gary Peacock, studied zen macrobiotics and was given one of Robert Moog's first prototype synthesizers in the 60's. These factors must have contributed to the wildly experimental and a bit mental album 'I'm The One' that stunned ears in 1971. The album has just recently been given a timely re-issue on CD available through her website.

Disco Blaze 'Plastic Feelings'

Disco Blaze 'Plastic Feelings'

Kicking Nigerian psych-funk from the mid-seventies. There's nothing very disco about this or any of the other tracks on 'Jump Back' - a collection of percussive stompers intermittently peppered with pidgen English lyrical efforts. The album was recently discovered by some geezer on a trip to Lagos and got a subsequent re-release on African Sun Records last year. Presumably the album title refers to the evasive action one might need to take when encountering the sheer hotness of the Disco Blaze talent?

Jackie Mittoo 'Groovy Spirit'

Jackie Mittoo 'Groovy Spirit'

The keyboard king of Jamaica steps into smooth instrumental territory with a backpack full of strings and rocksteady sandwiches.

Al Green 'I'm A Ram'

Al Green 'I'm A Ram'

With spring in the air, the fruits of the loins of countless rams now skipping merrily around the fields and the star sign of Aries coming about in fine style with the biggest full moon for 19 years the other night, this tune seems to fit quite snugly with the general vibes.  The Rev Green gets next to each and everybody with a chunk of warm and horny soul. Baaaa!

O'Donel Levy 'Bad, Bad Simba'

O'Donel Levy 'Bad, Bad Simba'

'Bad, Bad Simba' kicks pretty much every other jazz-funk/fusion record in to the proverbial 'row z' in a blur of pummeling guitar work. 

Hot Chocolate 'Bump And Dilly Down'

Hot Chocolate 'Bump And Dilly Down'

Hidden away on the B-side to a distinctly average single called 'Changing World' off Hot Chocolate's debut album 'Cicero Park' is this little funk excursion, featuring cool organ squiggles and the Brixton outfit's notoriously tight percussion elements. Quite what to "bump and dilly down" means doing is anyone's guess.

The Gaturs 'Gatur Bait'

The Gaturs 'Gatur Bait'

Butt-kicking swamp-funk in the vein of fellow Bayou inhabitants The Meters. Seriously laid-back and heady grooves primed for the lengthening evenings ahead. Willie Tee leads the charge on this one with amphibious keyboard riffs that are guaranteed to bring out the alligator smile in you.

Jr. & His Soulettes 'Thing, Do The Creep'

Jr. & His Soulettes 'Thing, Do The Creep'

Preposterously gifted and funky young family from Oklahoma led by Harold Moore Jr. (aged 10) on guitar and backed up by his sisters Vinita Marie (9) on bass, Denise Marshall (7) on drums and Jacquelyn Marshall (6!) on waw-waw organ. This 1971 LP is a holy grail for funk collectors. Allegedly almost all of the original 300 copy run of the album were damaged beyond repair when they were shrinkwrapped on a meat packing machine in a classic DIY effort that went tits up.

Larry Jon Wilson 'Melt Not My Igloo'

Larry Jon Wilson 'Melt Not My Igloo'

Got turned on to the brilliance of LJW whilst watching Heartworn Highways - a docu-film about country music featuring Townes Van Zandt, Steve Young and Guy Clarke among other outlaw country musicians, which itself comes highly recommended. Check out Larry in action on a clip from the film here performing 'Ohoopee River Bottomland'. Not only does he come across as an extremely good lad, but his awesome barritone voice and soulful take on Southern rock, occasionally laced with driving funk undercurrents on three consistently good albums from the seventies, makes it hard to understand why he wasn't more widely lauded for his efforts. Here he warns of Eskimo gravy being pretty cold. Thanks for the heads-up Mr. Wilson.

Earl Hooker 'Two Bugs In A Rug'

Earl Hooker 'Two Bugs In A Rug'

Earl Hooker was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi as first cousin to John Lee, but moved to Chicago at the age of one. He spent the lion's share of his productive life playing blitzing, shit-hot guitar as a session man in the studio and on the road. There are scarce few recordings of Earl, but this album (called 'There's A Fungus Amung Us' due to advancing Tuberculosis in the bluesman in the early '70s) represents some of his best sides. The entirely instrumental album features a ragged patchwork of steel slide guitar, rugged rhythm section, stabbing organs, and sax, which serve to knock the edges off an underlying blues framework to create an altogether more funky and amiable monster. The slightly incongruous sleeve artwork by cult cartoonist Robert Crumb adds to the ramshackle charm.

Eric Burdon and War 'Magic Mountain'

Eric Burdon and WAR 'Magic Mountain'

Despite being released in 1976, this album contains live recordings of the band captured between 1969 and 1971. Probably made available for contractual reasons, the material is nevertheless highly enjoyable, with long interpretations of 'Paint It Black' and 'A Day In The Life' taking up one side of the record. Magic Mountain sounds like the place to be. According to the old saying, what goes up must come down, but this basic law of gravity clearly didn't get in the way of Eric's vision in the making of this song.

Cymande 'Dove'

Cymande 'Dove' 

The UK group Cymande defined their sound as 'Nyah Rock' - a fusion of rastafarian rhythms, soul, funk and rock, best exemplified by their self-titled first album from 1971. As well as this 10 minute jam the album also contains the hits Bra and The Message, making it an essential piece of black British musical history.

Lee Oskar 'Haunted House'

Lee Oskar 'Haunted House'

Famed for his prominent role alongside Eric Burdon in the line-up of funk rock fusion group WAR, Danish born harpist Lee Oskar went on to make three solo albums and also manufacture high-quality harmonicas. This track is off his 1978 LP 'Before The Rain', which is a hit and miss affair but also contains a languid jam called 'Steppin' with a bag-piped intro thats worth checking out.

Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 'Oh Happy Gabe (Sometimes Blue)'

Charles Wright & Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band 'Oh Happy Gabe (Sometimes Blue)'

Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band (they of 'Express Yourself' fame), released their third album 'In the Jungle, Babe' during 1969, including a handful of covers and some loose instrumental jams. This one is a breezy brass and ivory number suitable for those times when an air guitar won't quite satisfy and what's really needed is an air trumpet.

Funkadelic 'I Bet You'

Funkadelic 'I Bet You'

Funkadelic's first album made a frayed and wide-eyed entrance into the world in 1970, melding deep, rhythmical patterns into lengthy funk jams. 'I Bet You' is a remake of an earlier version of the song by The Parliaments, also covered by the Jackson 5 and sampled by the Beastie Boys.

Darondo 'Let My People Go'

Darondo 'Let My People Go'

It only takes a cursory glance at Darondo's knuckles to see that he means business. Coming on like the musically gifted sibling of B.A. Baracus, this title track off his re-issued album 'Let My People Go' is a taught, muscular, downtempo serving of heavy funk and soul. Get to it sucker!

The Country Soul Revue 'Super Soul Beat Pt.1 & Pt.2'

The Country Soul Revue 'Super Soul Beat Pt.1'

The Country Soul Revue 'Super Soul Beat Pt.2'

A little soul-tinged, country blues groover from the eclectic and wide-eyed Casual Records label, whose 'Country Got Soul' compilations are worth tracking down. Also check out The Gourds covering Snoop Dogg's hood anthem 'Gin And Juice' in a redneck banjo stylee, perfect for turning the average house party into a ghetto barn dance at the drop of a straw hat.