BGP has long led the charge compiling obscure funk gems onto collections like the first Superfunk and Golden State Funk sets, but excel themselves on this latest batch of impossibly rare 45s and startling stuff unearthed from various vaults and cupboards which never saw release. As ever, this superlative collection of party-time workouts, vocal tour de forces and wiggedout oddities from between 1967 and the early 70s have their often-convoluted tales painstakingly explained by Dean Rudland’s sleevenotes. With a sweet singer calling herself Eleanor Rigby, this becomes vital.
Highlights bulging the funkpants include Love Experience’s Are You Together For The New Day, 87th Off Broadway’s super-tough Moving Woman, James Carpenter’s Party Time from Dave Hamilton’s illustrious Detroit operation and Los Africanos’ sublime rendition of the Isleys’ It’s Your Thing (turning into a shimmering space-jazz keyboards workout). Other treats include Julio Zavalla vamping up JB’s Cold Sweat, the ultra-obscure Chet Ivey’s supercharged He Say She Say, Joe Haywood’s barnstorming New Orleans classic (Play Me) A Cornbread Song, the wah wah-swathed blaxploitation bliss of Ramsey Lewis bassist Cleveland Eaton & The Kats’ It’s Mookie Time and the Phillips Brothers’ hallucinogenic loony-chant, Who Stole my Cookies, which normally goes for a few hundred and typifies this beautiful set.
