Soulfunkjazz’s Blog

Varius Artist.
Tracks:
1. Packjammed With the Party Posse – Stock, Aitken & Waterman
2. Rapp Payback (Where Iz Moses?), Pt. 2 [12"] – James Brown
3. Boogie Down (Get Funky Now) [12] – Real Thing
4. Do What You Wanna Do [12] – T. Connection
5. One Nation Under a Groove [12] – Funkadelic
6. Fantastic Voyage [12] – Lakeside
7. Funky Sound [12] – Sequence
8. Pick Up the Pieces [12] – Average White Band
9. Do It [Mix] – BT Express
10. Loose Caboose [12"] – Joe Tex
**Listen**

The Best Of Cameo (Funk Essentials-1993).
Larry Blackmon and his Cameo mates ruled funk’s domain for over a decade. Cameo evolved from its origins as a horn-based and dominated ensemble into a synthesizer-oriented group that still featured sturdy basslines and exuberant vocals, but was in tune with urban and black America’s new sensibility. These 14 selections range from the formative cuts “Rigor Mortis,” “Shake Your Pants,” and “It’s Over” to the definitive “Word Up,” “Candy,” and “Back and Forth.” Blackmon’s alternately sneering, defiant, and aggressive vocals were the constant from Cameo’s beginnings in the 1970s to their emergence as funk’s reigning champions in the 1980s.
Tracks:
1. Word Up!
2. Single Life
3. Candy
4. Shake Your Pants
5. Rigor Mortis
6. Attack Me With Your Love
7. Talkin’ Out the Side of Your Neck
8. Sparkle
9. Back and Forth
10. Flirt
11. She’s Strange [12 Rap Version]
12. I Just Want to Be
13. Skin I’m In Blackmon
14. It’s Over
**Listen**

Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome (1977).
Parliament simply poured it on for this amazing album, clearly one of its all-time best. At least one band named itself after a lyric – Urge Overkill, taken from the song “Funkentelechy” itself – while the amount of times this album has been sampled for the music is uncountable. Besides having an absolutely wonderful name, it contained at least three of the finest Parliament tunes ever, including arguably its signature song. “Flash Light,” which closes Funkentelechy on a riotous high, has it all – a brilliant fake ending, instant singalong value, a synth-bassline to kill for from Bernie Worrell, and so much more. As the album ends, so too does it begin, with a stone-cold classic – “Bop Gun (Endangered Species).” Starting with a brisk little guitar figure and beat, it turns into an instant party on all fronts, with great lead vocals and an addictive chorus, the Horny Horns and company hitting the grooves and blasting hard. Worrell’s laser noises and shimmering keyboard leads and Cordell Mosson’s monster bass squelches send everything all that much more over the top. Another song title says it all – “Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk (Pay Attention – B3M).” Treated with vocoders to an absurd degree, Sir Nose became the legendary enemy of funk, specifically the Starchild, on many a P-Funk recording (that’s the two of them on the hilarious cover, the Starchild himself operating the Bop Gun). The throwaway lines in this song are almost legendary in and of themselves, while the music itself is a great slow build and burn rhythm that piles more on as it goes, with singers, horns, and more taking it to a climax. “Funkentelechy” and “The Placebo Syndrome” both have plenty of goodness as well, while “Wizards of Finance” is an amusing retro diversion, helping make Funkentelechy the highlight it is.(AMG).
Tracks:
1. Bop Gun (Endangered Species)
2. Sir Nose d’Voidoffunk [Pay Attention - B3M]
3. Wizard of Finance
4. Funkentelechy
5. Placebo Syndrome
6. Flash Light
**Listen**

That’s The Way Of The World (1975)
Earth, Wind & Fire has delivered more than its share of excellent albums, but if a person could own only one EWF release, the logical choice would be That’s the Way of the World, which was the band’s best album as well as its best-selling. Open Our Eyes had been a major hit and sold over half a million units, but it was World that established EWF as major-league, multi-platinum superstars. Fueled by gems ranging from the sweaty funk of “Shining Star” and “Yearnin’ Learnin’” to the gorgeous ballad “Reasons” and the unforgettable title song, EWF’s sixth album sold at least five million units. And some of the tracks that weren’t major hits, such as the exuberant “Happy Feelin’” and the gospel-influenced “See the Light,” are equally powerful. There are no dull moments on World, one of the strongest albums of the 1970s and EWF’s crowning achievement. [The 1999 CD reissue has five previously unreleased “sketches” from late 1974, including much briefer instrumental run-throughs of “Shining Star” and “That’s the Way of the World,” the first take alternate vocal of “All About Love,” an alternate of “Happy Feelin’,” and the jazz-oriented jam “Caribou Chaser” (the only one of the five not to be represented in a different version on the proper album). (AMG)
Tracks:
1. Shining Star
2. That’s the Way of the World
3. Happy Feelin’
4. All About Love
5. Yearnin’, Learnin’
6. Reasons
7. Africano
8. See the Light

Original Sketches (Previously Unreleased)
9. Shining Star
10. All About Love (First Impression)
11. Happy Feelin’ (Anatomy of a Groove)
12. Caribou Chaser (Jazzy Jam)
13. That’s the Way of the World (Latin Expedition)
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