Best Funk Tracks of 2009, part the second

It may go without saying that there were more records I liked from last year than I had time or space to mention in one post.  What we have here are the titles that got neglected the first time around.  As before, the order of their presentation is not meant to be a comment on the quality of the work.  Most of the items I am about to discuss were left out the first time because they are less than full length releases, they are samplers or re-releases, or they only had a few cuts that I thought worthy.  That having been said, I am quite fond of all of these efforts, and I thought you might like them too.  After all, music is best enjoyed in a social setting, and all of my research and time spent on this hobby will somehow be validated if others can reap the fruits of the labor.

Let’s start out with a few cuts that were released as singles or EPs.  I very much like this trend in music in some ways.  While we can all mourn the disappearance of the full-length album that hangs together as a contiguous piece of art due to the dominance in the digital marketplace of the individual track, one positive outcome of this trend is that bands don’t need to come up with 10 or 15 decent numbers before they get released to the public.  I hope that some of these releases portend forthcoming LPs from the artists in question, but either way I am happy to have things as they become ready for consumption.

Lefties Soul Connection are one of my absolute favorite contemporary funk bands out there.  The sound is totally raw and stripped down, borrowing heavily from the vibe cast by The Meters.  The band brings this vibe into the modern era by juicing it up with an aggression and attitude that seems to come by way of hip-hop and hard rock.  I always hesitate to compare things to hip-hop, because it is bound to give some people the wrong impression, but I trust that those with a suitably subtle and sophisticated ear will hear what I mean. “Have Love Will Travel” is an old R&B tune that many may know from its incarnation on The Black Keys record “thickfreakness”.  The association with The Black Keys will help to give an idea of what I mean by the aggressive nature of Lefties Soul Connection.  The B-side is another revival of an old tune, in this case “Here Come The Girls”.  I believe that this cut has been picked up by somebody’s marketing campaign, which will help get it wiser notoriety.  I am less antagonistic to the proverbial “sell-out” when it is done by an emerging talent just looking to get paid.  Make a living where you can, my brothers.  Lefties also released another single in 2009, “You Don’t Know” is fronted by singer Corrina Grayson.  Both of these releases are a departure from the full-length albums in their prominently featured vocals.  The band is a mostly instrumental enterprise, so it is interesting to hear them venture into more pop-oriented territory.

Paolo “Apollo” Negri is simply one of the most prolific players on the scene today.  In addition to producing loads of work under his own name, he performs with The Link Quartet, Modulo5, The Futuro Seven, Fred Leslie’s Missing Link, Low Fidelity Jet-Set Orchestra and many more.  All of these acts have produced multiple releases in the last few years.  It is actually impossible to count how many projects this man is involved with.  The various entities do have a general similarity of sound that allows one to dependably find quality work, whatever the title.  That sound is variously described as funk, soul, jazz, lounge or retro-cool.  I think of it as 60′s mod bachelor pad astro-lounge.  You can almost picture the shag carpet and beaded doorways and smell the incense as you listen to these records.  I first learned about this family of performers from the Hammondbeat website, which is a great record label and aggregator of talent from a wide variety of sources.  Paolo is an Italian fellow almost all of whose records are instrumental.  You wouldn’t want anything too interruptive of the party you surely have going on while you’re listening to such music.  The work sounds like it’s from a movie that doesn’t exist.  There is a metaphysical and existential uncertainty introduced as one wonders whether the life we are leading is actually the fictional plot line  for which this music is the soundtrack.  Groovy man.

The Sweet Vandals are a retro-funk band from Madrid.  They have two full-length records out, including one released in 2009, but I have to admit that I have only checked out the singles.  On their website, it says that they have been around for ten years, but the first recordings available seem to be from 2007.  On the one hand, I want to say what took you so long to get discovered, but on the other I say ggod for you for keeping the funk alive whether or not anyone was listening.  I have a feeling they were busy ripping up the European club scene before they finally got around to committing the sound to proverbial wax. Whatever the case, I am glad that we can all now access the warm and wonderful sound that is The Sweet Vandals.  They rely on the analog aesthetic that is so prevalent these days.  They have a gospel-infused sound that is reminiscent of the best work from the Daptone posse.  The videos of the live performances invoke a revival spirit that makes me hope for a chance to see them in person.

As I get deeper and deeper into the DJ biz, I have come to really appreciate the value of a good compilation.  All of these fit that bill.  The Soulshaker series has quite a few volumes at this point, and they are nearly all worth at least a cursory examination.  Put out by the folks at Record Kicks, it contains cuts by a whole bunch of folks I love to keep my ear on, including some previously mentioned in this venue.  In addition to The Link Quartet and Dojo Cuts, this volume contains must hear entries from Baby Charles and Trio Valore.  Baby Charles is a band I have been onto for a while now, although Trio Valore I know virtually nothing about aside from this tasty single.  Listening to the tracks on their myspace makes me want to dig in further, though.  Baby Charles is a gritty funk band with a very strong female vocal lead.  The Tru Thoughts compilation is collection of covers in a more jazzy vein.  My personal favorite is the Alice Russell version of The White Stripes tune “Seven Nation Army”.  Just can’t get enough of that melody.  Also pleasing off of that records is Quantic’s cover of the Portishead track “Wandering Star”.  When Portishead first came out, I thought it was the best thing happening in music at the time, and it still stands up relatively well, especially when given a latin makeover by an excellent producer.  Speaking of latin, the Groovadelia album is almost all along those lines.  I’m not sure if all of the talent represented there is actually from the Spanish speaking world, but it sure seems like it.  There is just something about a latin beat that is dangerously contagious.  My favorites on this album are the reworking of the Willie Bob classic “Fried Neckbones” by 3000 Hombres and “Be A Looser” by The Afro Soul Toasting All Stars.

It’s back to New York City for the next two entries from the good people at Truth and Soul.  In this case, we have another album of cover tunes, this time from The El Michels Affair.  Leon Michels is the founder of the label, and quite a formidable musician in his own right.  He started out playing with the Daptone crew, many of whom had also been associated with Desco records in the early to mid 90′s.  The family tree of contemporary funk in NYC is complicated and quite fertile.  At any rate, what we have here is a wonderful tribute to one of their heroes by a band that is not afraid to strike out on their own.  While tackling some riffs that have become almost cliche in funk circles, the band makes them fresh again in a way that cultivates appreciation for old and new alike.  The version of “Walk On By” is absolutely stunning in how it takes the themes introduced in the original and turns them into something I, for one, did not see was there.  It is an instrumental which nevertheless manages to express all of the emotional complexity found in Isaac Hayes lyric version.  The Fabulous Three record is a bit of an enigma.  Not only is the music itself a spacy, dubby exploration of atmospheric rhythms, but I get the impression that the picture on the cover is an exercise in the art of deception.  While the sound definitely invokes a kind of seventies afrobeat vibe, I am pretty sure it is produced by the same group of kids from the city responsible for the rest of the stuff on the label and its predecessors.  Some of these cats had a definite penchant for subterfuge if not outright fraud in the way they represented themselves.  Several of the records purposefully neglect to mention a date of production in addition to being somewhat hazy on the personnel involved.  Now that several of them have gone on to greater success, I think that the habit is being broken, but the tracks here come from the early days of the enterprise when there may have been more of a “succeed at any cost” mentality.  In the end, what is important is that the music itself is worth hearing, and that it has managed to get itself heard.  One result of the resurgence of the old-school sound is that there is a pretty big scene of deep funk collectors now, many of whom have gone out of their way to find and recognize some artists who might otherwise have been lost to posterity.  A little hucksterism along the way doesn’t really hurt.  Given the way the hustler ethos is evident throughout the music itself, we should not be too surprised that it is made by actual hustlers.

Before I leave you, I have to make a nod to the reggae releases which caught my attention from 2009.  In general, I don’t pay as much attention to reggae as  I once did, but I do still love me some reggae, and I thought these items deserved some comment.  First off, we have the collective that has John Brown’s Body at its core and includes 10ft. Ganja Plant and Giant Panda Guerrilla Dub Squad as ancillary members.  The JBB release is a collection of remixes from a 2008 album, while the 10ft. Ganja Plant record is the one that really caught my attention.  In general, these folks produce rootsy reggae that at times explores the more dubby regions of musical space.  John Brown’s Body is and has been extremely popular for over ten years, dominating the east coast market for original reggae, making annual pilgrimages to the Wellfleet Beachcomber.  This is no mere tribute act or people just trying to exploit the genre’s popularity to make a buck off of frat parties.  These guys seem to believe what they sing about and genuinely enjoy what they do.  A little more on the novelty act side of things, we have The Easy Star All Stars.  The band made a fairly big splash with their reggae interpretation of the Dark Side of the Moon  a few years ago, and followed it up with Radiodread, a run through of OK Computer by Radiohead.  This past year saw the band continue the theme with the release of The Lonely Hearts Dub Band.  While there may be some diminishing returns as they wring as much out of the concept as they can, the starting point was fertile enough that we have not yet reached a completely barren point yet.  Some of the songs work remarkably well, while others seem a little forced, but overall the record is definitely worth a listen.  I am sure these guys are monster players, and I would love to see them live where they are not so tied to any one particular veneer.

More honorable mentions:

So these are some of the things that I picked up from last year.  You ought to have enough here to keep you busy for a while.  Follow your nose and you can find even more good stuff out there.  Please share some of your discoveries with me in the comments.  Ciao for now!

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