From the same folks who brought you the Soul Sessions compilation comes this badass double-CD set of pure, greasy funk bliss. These discs are chock-full of the hits (30 in all) that defined this music in an era when the funk had not yet been betrayed by disco. There is nothing fancy about the packaging, as Union Square -- from Cowley, England -- is strictly a licensing operation. The discs are in a slim-line jewel box inside a cool but unremarkable slipcase. Which is fine, because you aren't gonna have them in the box much ...
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From the same folks who brought you the Soul Sessions compilation comes this badass double-CD set of pure, greasy funk bliss. These discs are chock-full of the hits (30 in all) that defined this music in an era when the funk had not yet been betrayed by disco. There is nothing fancy about the packaging, as Union Square -- from Cowley, England -- is strictly a licensing operation. The discs are in a slim-line jewel box inside a cool but unremarkable slipcase. Which is fine, because you aren't gonna have them in the box much anyway. For proof, try starting things with Funkadelic's "One Nation Under a Groove" (!) and slipping immediately into the Fatback Band's "Do the Bus Stop," drifting into the Isleys' "It's Your Thing." Beginning to get the picture of how these tracks were compiled? Yeah, right, they're all mid-'70s groove jockeying for position on the dancefloor jams. Roy Ayers picks it up from there with "Everybody," before Herbie Hancock's "Fat Mama" and Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "A Real Mother for Ya" turn it up. And that's only half of disc one. It's true, you've heard it all before, but perhaps not like this in a while. On top of having the good taste to jam all these tracks together for maximum groove, the slick juke-savvy producers used the long versions of these cuts whenever possible. Disc two kicks it with Charles Wright's "Express Yourself," before seguing into Maceo Parker's "Got to Get Cha" and the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money." In addition, the set includes the relatively unheard Toney Lee's "Reach Up" (a classic) and the 24-Carat Black's signature tune. The Meters' "Look Ka Py Py" precedes Aaron Neville's only bona fide funk classic, "Hercules," the Bar-Kays' "Son of Shaft" makes an all-too-rare compilation appearance, and Watson, Fatback, and Funkadelic return, as the set closes with "(Not Just) Knee Deep." Say what you will and argue away, but for sure this pack o' wax tracks should be blarin' out the box at your next soirée y'all. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi
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