De La Soul’s Plug 1 and Plug 2 joined forces with French turntablists Chocolate and DJ Khalid to create a thematic album of some of the funkiest grooves this side of the pond in what could be considered their first album since 2004′s Grind Date (not including the “Nike” album).

True De La Soul fans will cry foul since the album does not have Plug 3, but the full De La Soul team is rumored to be joining forces with Prince Paul for their official eighth album tentatively entitled You’re Welcome. But we’re here to talk about First Serve which is out now!

De La Soul’s Plug 1 and Plug 2 present First Serve is an amazingly funky album with great riffs and smooth flowing lyricism with unusually polished shiny edges. De La Soul fans should be exceptionally excited because the end result is a perfect funky slice of heaven laced with great lyrics and storyline.

Their ever present incomparable rhyming skills are still here and the rhymes mix a laid back old school feel sweetened with a storyline of the journey of two friends by the name of Deen Whitter and Jacob ‘Pop Life’ Barrow in a pursuit to land a record deal.

The story follows the duo from creating songs in a Mrs. Whitter’s basement all the way through to their final attainment of success and touches everything in between in the form of 16 very funky tracks. From the struggle for notoriety, getting signed with Goon Time Records, feuds to french hoes, reconciliation and more, it’s all here and woven into a narrated tapestry and capped on both ends with intro and ending credits.

It’s incredibly difficult to pick out any specific stand-out song since all of the tracks are radio-worthy (with some language editing of course), but they all have a solid feel. Chocolate and DJ Khalid have done an exceptional job spending time with the instrumentation to give them a “live and in person” sound. The bass riffs are thick, the drums are snappy, and the overall aura of the album is very East Coast, but many times dabbles in that West Coast top-down cruising summertime groove.

The flow of the songs do an exceptional job of not only leading the story along, but also maintaining the emotions of the storyline. Starting off with a light “no care in the world” of our two dreamers with Pushin’ Aside, Pushin’ Along which we debuted here along with the celebratory We Made It after the team gets signed with Goon Time Records.  Each song lends itself near flawlessly to the emotion of what’s going on.

Only two songs stray from that light funky sway and come off darker than the rest and that’s the “internal beef” section of the storyline that brings out the Chronic-like stabbing piano chords and gruffer lyricism. Those songs are Clash Symphony and Tennis (although the latter is post-beef) and they’re split down the middle with a very breezy cruising tune called Pop Life set in the backdrop of France.

The storyline is narrated from front to back to maintain the continuity and is interwoven with a lot of humorous dialogue between the characters. There’s nothing too “eye rolling” here, but once you’ve absorbed the story, it may be a hard re-listen. The songs could easily stand on their own, but the story is so finely ingrained into the flow of the album, it may be difficult to break singles out of it.

Overall the album is filled with some great funk grooves, head bopping bass line and riffs and essentially the perfect soundtrack for a road trip. We’ve been excited to listen to the finished product ever since we received the first hint of its existence and we were not at all disappointed with the end product

We hope that the marketing really makes sure that De La Soul‘s involvement is out front a tad more forcefully than it has been, because this is a REALLY good effort and it would be a shame for it to get buried because of a lack of notoriety. Although we have a feeling that De La Soul fans will not let that happen anytime soon.

Get the word out. The boys from De La Soul have a new album out now called First Serve and it’s a great adventure. We give it 4 out of 5 afros!

http://wearefirstserve.tumblr.com/
http://www.twitter.com/poplivin

Part 1 – Mrs. Whitter Video

Part 2 – We Made It

Song – Pushin’ Aside, Pushin’ Along

Mixtape – The Goon Time Mixtape
This is NOT on the First Serve album. This was created to simply lend itself to the storyline.

What do you get when you pull together 60+ funk musicians to create a funk album masterpiece? You get a Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown. The Big Ol’ Nasty Getdown – Volume 1, or BONG for short, project was the brainchild of John Heintz from Trulios DisGracias, along with John Paul-Miller and Derrick Johnson from Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band.  George Clinton and the late Garry Shider of Parliament-Funkadelic fame soon came on board to give it the extra name recognition it needed to get the publicity machine rolling.  The idea was to gather some of the most amazing funk musicians from around the planet to collaborate on a musical project that would serve as a virtual Who’s Who of the funk world and that may also become a funk encyclopedia of sorts as the effort gains more volumes.

As mentioned, the B.O.N.G. project consist of many musicians. Who, you ask? Ok, a sampling of who contributes to this album would be members of P-Funk, The Meters, Galactic, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, Funkadelic, Parliament Funkadelic, SciFi, The Lee Boys, Big Sam’s Funky Nation,Trulio Disgracias, The Soular System, Derek Trucks Band, Ralph Roddenberry Band, Blackalicious, Cosmic Sweat Society, and literally tons more that were involved like George Clinton, Frank Mapstone, Kendra Woods and others, which you can view track by track here.

The album is 11 tracks of some of the funkiest grooves that we’ve heard in a very long time. Smooth funky New Orleans style funk that bleeds through every track with nary one oddball in the bunch. And even though 11 tracks seems short, there is almost a full hour of music here thanks to long play tracks such as Platinum, The Beauty of Pretty, and the 8:30+ Wake Me Up.

The vocals are contributed by a variety of performers. On the female vocalist side, the microphone is shared by Laura Reed, and also Belita Woods and Kendra Foster of P-Funk notoriety. Of the men who share vocal responsibilities, you’ll hear a healthy does of George Clinton, and the funky bassy voice of Michael Clip Payne (who provides the albums opening funky title track). Then there’s the Richie Havens style of Ralph Roddenberry, Reverend Desmond D’Angelo, Sidney Barnes, and even some rapping on the closing track Amplify by Agent 23 and The Gift Of Gab. And it goes without saying that background vocals are shared by many.

There were many musicians involved in the writing process and that varied input is evident in the delivery since there are some continuity issues, but the storytelling is not this albums strong suit anyway. It’s the common thread of funk that carries from track to track displayed in various shapes, sizes and presentation that really weaves an incredible tapestry of formidable funkafied fortitude.

All being said, this album is hard to explain, but it fills the void for funk music fans and even serves to introduce you to some acts you may not have otherwise discovered which is the Big Ol Nasty Getdown‘s strongest positive aspect.  We have no choice but to give the Big Ol Nasty Getdown – Volume 1 a 5 out of 5 afros and we can’t wait to hear the forthcoming future volumes. We hope that they’ll reach out even further and include even more musicians from other deserving funk projects.

You can follow their exploits on their blog at http://bigolnastygetdown.wordpress.com as they do live shows from time to time, as well as get updates into more volumes and member updates. Visit their Facebook page here to get some free music off of the album and also be sure that you hit up Amazon to pick up a copy at your earliest convenience! We’re told that the official street date is May 22nd.

A lot of people that are true lovers of funk have a hard time locating good new funk music here in the states. Most of the newer funk music is originating from overseas in France, Japan and Europe in the form of bands like Jamiroquai that pop on the charts briefly in the states and then disappear entirely. American based funk bands are relegated to an underground scene with even Canadian bands like Five Alarm Funk attempting to join forces to break through. Even if an American funk band finds some notoriety like Galactic, or Trombone Shorty, it’s normally alternately labeled as anything but just “funk”.

We were pleased to get a hold of an early copy of Phat Phunktion‘s new album Real Life.:.High Fidelity which looks to be yet another great band with nice layered funk sensibilities that seems to be fighting off those labels. The album starts off with a full sounding You Want It All that hearkens back to the days of Serpentine Fire with powerful rounded out horn section and hopping riffs. The album then dramatically changes paths to a Supertramp meets Michael McDonald sounding Eyes of Mine followed by the track With You that draws from heavy Steely Dan jazz influences.

It’s as if Phat Phunktion doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed as a “funk band” and lets that label simmer on the back burner. While those last 2 aforementioned songs are commercially viable, they are heavily jazz leaning, but you can still smell the funk from the back of the stove. The funk is then brought back to the front with Knockin’ em Down, but the album quickly finds itself back weaving in and out of the jazz realm with No More and Competition.

There are also some New Orleans funk sessions here as well including Miss Madison and Well Run Dry. The album then closes with a mid-tempo Broken and then finishes off the offering going back to the strong full sounding Jupiter that they began the album with. Even songs titled Don’t Destroy The Funk can’t help but add the highly technical jazz aspects of their overall sound while the album’s sole slow jam Dance In The Rain brings back old school R&B in the silhouette of 80′s Lionel Richie.

All in all, this is a very good album with a lot of technical prowess from some pretty powerful players. Phat Phunktion has been labeled as the new Tower of Power and they seem to be embracing that characterization with this album that follows the ToP formula to the letter.  The recipe has worked for them giving them stage time with some of the world’s best funk bands in the business including Tower of Power themselves, The Average White Band, WAR, Rick James, Kool & The Gang, Cameo, The Temptations and many others. So whatever they’re doing, their fans (lovingly referred to as Phatheads) are giving them all of the support they need to succeed.

About the only thing that we could have asked for would have been a more warm embrace for their funk sensibilities, but it’s pretty obvious that the writing team has a variety of influences in the styles of music they admire which affects the albums overall continuity.  However, we can’t deny that this is an extremely good funk-jazz album and for Tower of Power fans that haven’t yet found their next fix, there’s no need to look any further than Phat Phunktion’s latest album Real Life.:.High Fidelity. We give it 4 out 5 afros.

Check out the sneak peek below and then head to Amazon and pick Real Life.:.High Fidelity up yourself. While we could direct you to their website at http://www.phatphunktion.com to purchase it, it will serve them better for you to buy from a source where producers and labels are watching the numbers with interest. We need to help the funk genre in any way we can.

This is the first time that we’ve ever done a review of a movie, but for Atlanta folks, Fishbone has a rich history here even though they reign from California. To make it even more timely, Fishbone will be appearing here in Atlanta in a couple of days. My apologies for your regret should you read this late. For those not in the know, you owe it to yourself to get to this show come hell or high water because you won’t see anything like it ever again. Every show from Fishbone has elements of funk, ska, metal, rock, hip-hop and pop. With most bands, you have a general idea of what’s coming, but therein is where Fishbone’s strength lies.  A trait that many say are their true demise.

Every Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone is a movie documentary that reflects on the tumultuous past of the band and how the 3 remaining members have managed to hold it all together for so long (Angelo Moore, John Norwood Fisher, and Dirty Walt Kibby), even though the film doesn’t spend much time focusing on Walt primarily because he took a hiatus from the band from 2003 to 2010.  But the fact that he stuck it out for almost 25 years before even taking a break says volumes.

For those that were even remotely involved in the music scene back in the late 80′s, early 90′s, you knew who Fishbone were and made it a priority to see them in concert at least once to understand how a show should be presented. The energy was beyond anything anyone had ever seen. From insane balcony back flip stage dives to wacky thrashing onstage antics, Fishbone was always ahead of the curve. So it was tough for them to watch their friends like Red Hot Chili Peppers and other bands like Living Color go on to super stardom, while the creators of the sound wallowed in obscurity.

The movie does a great job of capturing the frustration of the band from the beginning of the project in South Central Los Angeles to the present day project. The use of fantastic animation sequences capture the early days and even dabbles in the historical background of segregated L.A. and how the band mates were bussed to white schools, which proved to be the spark of what would become Fishbone.

The film is filled with appearances from Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, George Clinton, Questlove, Ice-T, Gwen Stefani from No Doubt and many more who were truly influenced and moved by this amazing band. It’s also narrated by Laurence Fishburne and impeccably animated by some incredibly talented artists.

The documentary does exactly what it’s supposed to do which is to create a historical overview of the band and increase your interest to see them even more. The stark contrasts of their meteoric rise to fame in the 80′s to the end result of playing to audiences of a few hundred can be tough to watch. But at the same time it’s truly admirable to see a band that could have called it quits years ago and is still staying true to their craft.

The film shows some absurdly strange occurrences like Chris Dowd’s almost cult-like meltdown to Kendall Jone’s simply walking away. Both of which lend their insight to the film which really rounds out the documentary and makes it all-encompassing.

My own experiences with Fishbone began back in the 80′s when I was singing in a band called New Reality playing very similar sounding music sans a horn section. We emulated the sound of Prince, but still maintained the energy of bands of the time like Fishbone, Follow For Now and 24-7 Spyz.  The latter two bands being ones that also latched onto Fishbone’s formula. I’ve personally seen Fishbone a few times back in their hey-day. During their tour to support Reality of My Surroundings, I was cash-strapped and couldn’t go. So I took the bus into downtown Atlanta just to sit at the backstage door of the Roxy and listen to the concert. It was one of the most amazing concerts I had ever heard.  I also attended the show when Angelo went through his Dr. Madvibe phase overplaying the theremin during an entire concert at Midtown Music festival in Atlanta during the Chim Chim’s Bad Ass Revenge stage of their career.

Fast forward to present day and the band is still playing venues, still frustrated by their lack of fame and rightfully so.  But this may actually be the perfect moment for them if they could just get marketed correctly.  The movie may help that effort and their new EP Crazy Glue that was just released late last year may actually find some legs if it can get the push it needs by satellite radio and strong online marketing efforts. But if there is anything that can be said about Fishbone, it’s that they are in it until death do us part.

The movie is already available via rental on iTunes, and is set to hit DVD on February 21st, which you can already pre-order via Amazon here.  But we highly suggest that you rent it right now and watch it immediately. This film should be a prerequisite for all local bands to see to understand how true artists master how to perform a show and also to understand the hardships of the road ahead.

For us at Funkatopia, Fishbone deserves a place in the halls of funk fame for expanding the genre so widely and wrapping up true energy into one big ball of exceptionalism. And if you’re in Atlanta, make plans to see them live this Wednesday at the Masquerade in downtown because there comes a time when years will pass and you’ll say to yourself, “Man, I wish I’d have taken that opportunity to see funk/rock/ska/metal perfection on stage.”  Trust us.  You’ll never see anything like it ever in your lifetime.

We’ve even found a Fishbone mix below for you to enjoy. It’s a mix of song clips and then at 1:30 kicks in with true audio nirvana. Enjoy. Oh, and as for the documentary, we give it a rousing 5 out of 5 afros because there simply is no other band that has pushed through for the love of music more than Fishbone has, nor will there most likely ever be again. And this film does a magical job at capturing the full history of the band and will forever be etched into our library of great rock documentaries.

We get inundated with a lot of CD’s that people try to write off as funk, when at best, it’s R&B with a little bass. But there is no confusion when it comes to the 12 piece Canadian band known as Five Alarm Funk. The band is primarily instrumental with occasional flavoring from an over the top almost Muppet-like ranting of a Dr. Hook type frontman who doubles as the band’s drummer.

Their last album entitled Anything Is Possible hit our inbox a couple months ago, even though it’s been available to the public since July of 2010. Anything Is Possible is horn-fueled frenzy with quite a bit of Latin influence that weaves itself into pretty much every song on the album. The album opens with a children’s choir abruptly interrupted with a wailing “Anything is Possible” and then proceeds into a breakneck speed with a song called Zenith Escalator.

There are several songs that offer an Egyptian type of feel including Titan and Brother Egypt, but for the most part, the album is filled with tricky changes, funky minor chords, and the massive horn army blending together to create some of the funkiest riffs since Pass The Peas.

The only thing missing from the mix is the presence of keyboards, but with as much going on as Five Alarm Funk brings to the table, it’s hard to complain when you’re grooving and bobbing your head along track after track. There’s no mistaking that this is truly a funk filled album with elements of jazz, afro-pop, latin, and a sprinkle of New Orleans stabs and sway.  It’s unusual that these guys originate out of Vancouver of all places.

While we’d love to talk about each and every member of the band and the excellence they all bring to the table, that would be way more text than you would have patience to read since there are a dozen members. We’ll just say that these are some of the best funk-fused musicians on the planet. For anyone looking to enjoy a full-blown funk band with a massive horn section and high flowing energy, you need to look no further than Five Alarm Funk.

We give Five Alarm Funk’s album Anything Is Possible a whopping 5 out 5 afros. Get it here right now.

It’s been a little over a year since The Roots last full band release when they hit the market in 2010 with the critically acclaimed and Grammy nominated How I Got Over. Since then they’ve been very busy bees.  The new album from The Roots entitled undun is set to hit the market on December 6th. Long story short, if you have surgery scheduled for that day, reschedule it to go to the store, buy the CD and plan to spend many hours dissecting this true masterpiece of music.

undun boasts 14 tracks, but hard core purists longing for an album that lasts the length of an Illadelph Halflife will be frustrated, but by no means unhappy with new music from one of the greatest bands anywhere (not just in late night) with just under 40 minutes of music.  Five of the 14 tracks clock in under 2 minutes, but they are those short gems that Roots fans have come to appreciate. Not to mention that The Roots have spent years of their career now creating those short “sandwiches” as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

undun is the story of Redford Stephens and it’s a brief story of his life that has also been accompanied by video clips that have been created to help the story along. Let’s take it track by track, which has been done before during early listens on OkayPlayer. But now that we’re upon the final edits of the CD, it’s worth a re-review.

Listen to The Roots undun album here via NPR.
Read along with all of the lyrics here. 

1) Dun

This instrumental/noise track features the sounds of a crying baby with an overdub of a flatline tone which immediately brings you into the story of a child born into a motherless world.   It’s then brought in with a nice chord progression hearkening back to early Roots albums.

2) Sleep

The first track has Redford discovering his mortality right off the bat. The spooky chord progressions draped with a haunting chorus performed by Aaron Livingston “I’ve lost a lot of sleep to dreams / And I do not miss them yet / I wouldn’t wish them on the worst of enemies / Let them burn, go from here / Like when autumn leaves.” This song is a tad hard to explain, but it’s mood filled heavy feel is a perfect introduction to the journey of Redford.

3) Make My (available now on Amazon)

The first track released from the album is Make My and your first hint that this album will continue the recipe that was so successful with their recent albums of poignant rhymes encapsulated between choruses sung by unexpected vocalists that brag tricky melodies that would make most songwriters jealous.  The track finishes with a nice instrumental groove that is worthy of a loop of its own with a fat strolling bass groove. We begin to realize that Redford is an insomniac of sorts as his battles with sleep continue primarily as a result of his life and stress. “Addicted to the green if I don’t ball I get the shakes / I’d give it all for a peace of mind for heaven sakes.”

4) One Time

This song could almost be considered the tip of the hill with the upbeat smash beat from Questlove. This song features Phonte and Dice Raw adding their voices to the drama of the streets explaining their prowess of the game they have to play to survive. It adds a hard street stomp that you could sway to and having Phonte, Dice Raw and Black Thought sharing rhymes on the track means lyrical mastery from front to back.

5) Kool On

This song brings Greg Porn and Truck North to the mike with Black Thought bragging again on their superiority of the game that they’ve been forced to play.  Black Thought is truly pulling his poetic side dropping lyrics like “Not in the lime light or needed for the crime right / No boasts, just bodied, chalked close to the line tight” creating stunning definitive visuals to the listener. All is draped with nice tight guitar riffs and a flowing chorus of the Bob Dylan-esque “Stars are made to shine”

6) The OtherSide

The OtherSide track is a retrospect of Redford’s actions as he realizes where the path is leading to. This song brings the under-appreciated Bilal Oliver to the mix singing a swooning chorus of “We’re all on a journey / Down the hall of memories / Don’t worry about what you ain’t got / leave with a little bit of dignity“.  This song was originally called The Jump on the original recordings, but grew to be Redford’s song of reflection. The album slowly becomes more West Coast feeling that is even more prevalent on the next song..

7) Stomp

This song brings Greg Porn back along with the instantly recognizable Just Blaze. The song boasts very West Coast sounding piano stabs in the vein of Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic 2011 (Still D.R.E. in particular).  In this part of Redford’s journey, he’s exited out of the retrospect and gone back into the “I do this because” mode and has now added a militant stance that will be his demise.

Lighthouse

Dice Raw and Black Thought take over the controls now as the paranoia creeps back in for Redford.  There’s a feeling of helplessness in the lyrics as if even Redford cried for help, there wouldn’t be anyone there to even hear it or care. Hence the chorus lyrics, “And no one’s in the lighthouse / You’re face down in the ocean / And no one’s in the lighthouse / And it seems like you just screamed / It’s no one there to hear the sound / And it may feel like no one’s there / That cares if you drown / Face down in the ocean.” Even though the song is desperate in content, the song is strangely upbeat with nice fuzz-wah keyboards painting the melody over the background just enough to keep things out of focus.

9) I Remember

We’re back in reflection for Redford as he looks at his life and reflects back on people he’s hurt and choices he’s made. The song is a mid-paced song with a beautiful stutter beat chorus. You’re taken on a journey back home from the streets and the thought process that ensues courtesy of Black Thought.

10) Tip The Scale

Dice Raw and Black Thought close out the lyrical content of the album as they rip this song up with great lyrics such as Dice Raw’s closing “Only two ways out, Digging tunnels or digging graves out” which foreshadows Redford’s demise and supported by the accompanying video. The song speaks more to the unfairness of the world which is poetic in light of the Occupy protests. “Some live life just living well / I live life tryna tip the scale my way“.

11) Redford (For Yia-Yia and Pappou)
12) Possibility (2nd Movement)
13) Will To Power (3rd Movement)
14) Finality (4th Movement)

These last 4 tracks go by quickly, but they use the best of that time with a beautiful string section accompaniment. The pieces are loosely based on Sulfjan Stevens instrumental work on his Michigan album. The first song entitled Redford (track 11) was even performed by Sulfjan Stevens on piano, which yet further showcases Questlove’s never ending journey to find the most intriguing musical artists out there. Every album for the past 5 albums have featured just-breaking underground artists and The Roots do a great job at finding those pieces of the puzzle that add even more avant garde to the mix.

As mentioned, the album will be available on December 6th at pretty much all music distributors and of course Amazon which already has a home for it (sans any audio clips). However, if you’d like to hear the album in its entirety, NPR has released a full album preview here.  We also have compiled all of the videos, photos and lyrics for the album on our site here that serves as the perfect partner for the album review.

All in all, we’re giving this album a 5 out of 5 stars.  Many people will scoff at the 5 star rating due to the length of the album, but you have to remember that considering that they work non-stop as Jimmy Fallon‘s house band, DJ weekly events, create multiple albums with other artists such as John Legend (the Grammy award winning Wake Up!), Duffy, Betty Wright, their fans should be very satisfied with this release.  Reschedule that appendectomy or heart surgery and get to the store to pick up this unbelievable new work of art that is one of their most cohesive works to date since the likes of Phrenology.

We give The Roots undun 5 out of 5 afros.

Listen to The Roots undun album here via NPR.
Read along with all of the lyrics here. 

For years, Prince fans have gone nuts that the song Extra Loveable has never seen the light of day. Well, apparently that has changed as Prince has re-recorded the classic song and pushed it out on iTunes Canada which is the only pace people can purchase the new cleaner version.  The new version features Andy Allo.

For Prince purists, here is the classic original song from way back when followed by the new version clip. You can purchase the new version on iTunes Canada.

And here’s the new version;

Prince purists are already going nuts online saying this is nowhere near the funkiness of the original. The song has been in circulation since the 80′s, so it’s no surprise that people are attached to the original. But the fact that he’s bringing out the unreleased funky tunes of the 80′s may be what Prince fans have been asking for for decades. meanwhile, some people who aren’t Prince fanatics are loving the funky direction. But we’re more interested in when we can buy it in the states.

Morris Day and The Time are back, but now they’re called The Original 7ven.  Pushed into using the new group name for whatever legal reasons that existed was a tough decision, but what some may see as a setback, The Original 7ven sees as a fresh start. While we haven’t been made privy to the reasoning, insiders speculate that members of The Time wanted to make the album a full-on Time album without Prince‘s involvement and the end result was Prince refusing to let them use the name. Regardless of the truth, the resulting CD entitled Condensate is exactly what you’d expect without the Purple One’s blessing and that is actually a good thing.

Getting an advanced copy of the new album was an amazing treat after literally years of waiting.  Like everyone else, we got the samples that were posted on Amazon.com and we’re happy to say that those audio samples don’t do the album any justice.  We are so glad that the initial clips we received from Amazon were not good representations of the true feel of the songs, but a tad bummed that people may gather opinions based on those poorly crafted clips. Bad Amazon! What transpires is 14 tracks of pure funky goodness and a couple filler segue tracks (O7ven Intro & O7ven Press Conference) filled with the tongue in cheek humor you’ve grown to love from the boys (Wrecka Stow style).

The Minneapolis pop influence is evident on this album with the opening track of Strawberry Lake, but that’s the only song where you’ll hear anything that even remotely sounds Prince influenced. The rest dabbles in sounds and influences that have been carried over from the members solo projects. The slow ballad Lifestyle is reminiscent of Pandemonium‘s Donald Trump Black Version, as does the closing track GoHomeToYoMan.  Rocker song Sick calls back to Pandemonium‘s Skillet, complete with Jesse Johnson‘s thumbprint from the rocking opening chords that he perfected with Bare My Naked Soul.  All of that being said, the members brought in their strengths from their hiatus and laid it to bare in a collection of truly great sounding songs that all have commercial potential in some form or fashion.

The funk sensibilities are all over the map with tunes like Role Play that hearken to a minimalist sound not heard since Madame X‘s Just That Type of Girl.  #Trending is the first single off the album that should easily find a home in the Top 40 if it gets marketed correctly. The droning single note keyboard stabs that The Time made famous back in the days of Ice Cream Castles is still a main ingredient in the songs. As are the sporadic riffs from Monte Moir and Terry Lewis that polish off edges in a way that only they can.

The boys are back to their strange quirky songs like If I Was Yo Man which is comfortably suited for a 90′s type medium groove somehow glued together with drum fills.  But that doesn’t keep them from staying current sounding with songs such as Cadillac that are similar to the drum-centrific Drop It Like Its Hot.  One Step is yet another track where they take a chance to try something different with a rockier sound courtesy of Jesse’s amazing solos and Condensate (the meaning of which we’ll let you discover on your own) is a picture perfect song that showcases the funkiness of The Original 7ven that everyone has come to expect. Even though it seems as if it’s outside of their circle of comfort in some parts, they still shine like a freshly waxed limousine no matter what they attempt.

All of this being said, fans of the The Time will be very satisfied with this album even more so than they were with Pandemonium which is saying quite a bit. Even though this album is missing its “Chocolate“, Condensate falls right in line with Pandemonium in the succession of sound for The Time. The individual strength of its members is more evident on this album that it has been in the past and a nod to acknowledge that the sum is not greater than the parts. Condensate makes sure that it goes out of its way to itch the scratch of their fans by giving all of their sounds an excellent presentation and even adding in ingredients to weave in the sound and feel of the solo projects that preceded it.

We’re giving Condensate a 4.5 out of 5 afros, because it’s a great representation of the Minneapolis funk and considering the direction this album could have taken, it really does a phenomenal job at meeting our expectations.  You won’t find a better Minneapolis-Funk album than this and we can only hope that the follow up is not two decades away as this one was.  The Original 7ven have given us an album that was a long time in the making and actually pretty darn close to being worth the wait. It hits the streets October 18th, 2011.

“I want this album to be disruptive”, was the statement from Van Hunt regarding his pending album release What Were You Hoping For? that has now finally hit the shelves and in reality, that’s exactly what it was. Disruptive.

Two years ago, Van Hunt was signed to the world renowned Blue Note Records, but they simply did not share his vision for the risks that he chose to take musically and shelved his Popular Machine album (the link is to an EP of the album), which many consider his groundbreaking work.  WWYHF was musically next in line after Popular Machine, but for fans of Van Hunt that didn’t get to hear the Popular Machine album, this will be drastically removed from his last official major label release of On The Jungle Floor that saw him experiencing some of his most commercial success.  And it’s way removed from his very successful solo album Van Hunt that showcased two hits for him with Down Here In Hell (With You) and the R&B hit Dust that earned him a Grammy nod in 2005.

Van probably believed that he had already catered to the commercial audience as the “man behind the curtain” writing songs for Dionne Ferris (Hopeless), touring with everyone from Mary J. Blige to The Roots, and even a collaboration with John Legend and Joss Stone on the remake of Sly Stone’s Family Affair which earned him a Grammy win in 2006.

But instead of succumbing to the requests of a major label and going the way that most commercial artists strive for, he decided to follow his desire to create something that he had never heard before. To take all of the influences that have embedded themselves into his psyche and mash it together into an inexplicable genre that borders on psychedelia topped off with tons of distortion, effects, excerpts, funk, punk and rock.  But the results may be too far gone for people to wrap their heads around.

Commercially, this album will most likely never see the light of day. Not for the limited distribution of the album via Red Distribution through the Godless Hotspot label, but simply because it’s almost impossible to categorize it.  Even songs that have some semblance of order, seem to go off on various tangents that don’t maintain any continuity. Very simply put, Van was only concerned with pleasing himself and for a musician that’s as it should be.  You can only hope that people share your vision, but it will be far fetched to find someone in tune with the maddening beauty that is What were You Hoping For?.  He even addresses this lyrically by saying, “Give them what they want, and they’ll only want more.”  The problem here being that people might not buy it if it’s not what they want. We’re wondering if he even cares.

WWYHF is a beautiful mess. The opening track of North Hollywood seems as if it’s found an off-kilter beat to settle into and then jettisons off unexpectedly into a hard John Bonham style drum rock bash. The continuity of every song that follows is only threaded together with surprises as if every possible idea that floated in his head was placed onto the album.  The ballad of Falls (Violet) can’t even stay calm long enough before breaking off into a poppy tune. The following song Moving Targets stays relaxed long enough to qualify as the albums one true ballad, but even it feels like the instrumentation wants to break free to sprint towards the finish line.   A Time Machine Is My New Girlfriend is reminiscent of where Van left off with his punk-pop sensibilities that most got a sense of on the On The Jungle Floor album with the song At The End of a Slow Dance that seemed completely out of place where some even wondered if it was the same artist.

But what’s more curious here is that Van has decided to make a lot more controversial statements than he has in the past. Lyrics such as “I asked for a taste of Jesus’ Blood because it tastes just like grape juice.” from Watching You Go Crazy Is Driving Me Insane and even racial undertones such as “It’s the end of ‘white flight’. Can’t afford to live around the people you like.” on the title track What Were You Hoping For? that he says is about the plight of society that complains about where they are while not even considering that it’s a direct result of the decisions we’ve made as a society. What did you expect the outcome to be? What were you hoping for?

All in all, newcomers to Van Hunt will have no idea what to make of this offering, but then again neither do die-hard Van Hunt fans. Some who followed his transition during and after the Blue Note fiasco including buying into his independent release of Use In Case of Emergency that showcased mostly outtakes, saw this coming. At least those fans knew that this album was going to be unfettered madness directly reflective of his musical genius.  In the process however, he abandoned the audience that rewarded him for his R&B masterpieces and then alienated the commercial path that brought him Grammy nominations and awards.  All of which he exchanged for his musical freedom to do what he wanted to.

While there’s freedom in his decision, it shouldn’t be surprising to him when this album struggles to find an audience. There’s a lot of truth to his statement that he was attempting to record an album that he had never heard before, but he should also expect the consequences of that.  From a funk perspective, we can only give it 3 out of 5 stars for the very fact that it’s filled with brilliant songs that are way ahead of their time. Outside of the funk realm, it may very well take 4 out of 5 stars even though it would leave some from the outside scratching their heads.

If you’re a hardcore Van Hunt fan, your frustration level is about to peak. We all want to see him succeed and be noticed by the general public for his musical prowess, but he’s not willing to make any concessions. There is something amazing in that very fact that he isn’t willing to compromise his integrity about his musical direction, wants and desires. The problem is that he makes no apologies and it’s commercial suicide.  Guess we’re all along for the ride…because we ain’t getting out of the car and after you take a listen, you won’t want to get out either. A gorgeous risky journey.

We have to be fair about this release when it comes to putting it up against the Funk-o-Meter because we reached out to fo/mo/deep to request their CD for review based on a review done by ReverbNation that gave it high funk marks. Any time that we hear someone label something as highly funky, we have to check it out ourselves and give it the good old fashioned Funk litmus test.

The CD entitled Eclecticism is instrumental with exception to the track entitled Expansions. However, there really is little need for vocals on this album since the instrumentation should be the primary focus here.  There are no fast moving parts or sleepy grooves here since all of the tracks are presented in a mid-tempo fashion that could probably be sewn together to create a tapestry of similar BPM’s. Every song is designed to be enjoyed and retrospected in a perfect middle ground.  From unusual busy bass lines and snappy drums to the bleeding horns throughout, there’s nothing underwhelming in the delivery and every note seems to have purpose.  Lest we forget the quirky song titles such as Kiggundu’s Bazaar and Mitch Betta Have My Bunny that beg for you to listen just to see what could warrant such a labeling.

The main misinterpretation with pigeonholing fo/mo/deep into the funk corner, as with most bands of this caliber, is that the music comes across as much more freeform funk when heard live than what gets captured on recordings. This is the same anomaly that has plagued bands like Tower Of Power, Deep Banana Blackout, and Robert Randolph for years.  See them live and you’re convinced that they’re the funkiest band you’ve ever seen. Buy the CD and you’re listening to what seems like loose fitting jazz standards. But fo/mo/deep manages to keep their funk edge on the recordings which is a feat in itself that hasn’t been accurately accomplished since Headhunters.  Although, fo/mo/deep thought enough about this possibility to have graced the CD with two live closing tracks including Giant FONKY Steps and the aforementioned Mitch Better Have My Bunny.

To fo/mo/deep‘s credit, this album is very clean and is well crafted jazz musicianship at its best. The Ohio collective has a very eclectic group of musicians (hence the album name), but all are very well established in the Ohio jazz community and their brotherhood is evident on this recording. There isn’t a weak link in this group. All of the full blown members break out their talents on their respective instruments such as mixing up bass styles (fretted, stand up, 6 strings), horns (tenor, alto & flute), pianos (electric, grand and organ), drums and percussion (drums, African & Indian percussion loops & standard percussion).

The bass riffs are fast and tight, the drums are clean and in the pocket, the horns take advantage of every possible melody opportunity they can within arrangements, the keys are tickled and woven throughout, and the percussion is placed with the perfect spatial conservatism to not be over-the-top or annoying. All in all, a very relaxing album that creates soft infusions of jazz and funk melded very well for background driving music, work music, or just plain headphone nirvana.

While we would love to give it a perfect 5 out of 5, it doesn’t meet the full blown funk effect, so we’re giving it a 4 out of 5. Not because it doesn’t deserve a perfect score for its production prowess and excellent musicianship, but because we have to judge under the guise of who we are here as Funkatopians. If we weren’t behind this wall, it would definitely take home the prize of a perfect score.

If you’re looking for a full blown bass heavy funk fix, this isn’t it.  But if your love of funk is more on the fence with acid jazz, this would well be worth a purchase.  Listen to some tracks and get it here!

 - as reviewed by Mr. Christopher