Three full
funky albums – and bonus tracks too! First up is Keep On Bumpin &
Masterplan – the Kay-Gees' funkiest record ever – a set that's harder and
sharper than anything else they'd ever record in years to come! Grabbing this
one up is like finding a lost Kool & The Gang album from the early years –
which is no surprise, since Ronald Bell of the group produced, and wrote a lot
of the songs with the group – maybe acting as their mentor, and definitely
giving the young group a great showcase for their boundless energy, and tight
skills in the groove department!
The band are incredibly tight – with lots of
hard drums, choppy guitar, and the rolling party feel that made Kool & The
Gang so great during their best years – captured here with a similarly raw
production style. There's some great horns that blast in and out, sounding very
off-beat at the best moments – like the classic "Who's the Man With the
Master Plan", sampled by YZ many years ago – or other funky cuts like
"Ain't No Time", "Get Down", and "You've Got to Keep
on Bumpin".
On Find A Friend, the Kay-Gee's are getting a little disco,
but they also manage to lay down some nice funky tracks – in the best Kool &
The Gang tradition of their early work! Ronald Bell of Kool & Gang is still
working with the group – and he wrote a lot of material and also performs on
the LP – which might be part of the album's strength – although the group have
clearly got a very strong legacy on their own! The record shows signs of the
direction that Kool & The Gang were taking at the time, with a move towards
electric keyboards instead of raw funky guitars – but like Kool's work from the
period, the use of these keyboards is nicely restrained, and adds some good
jazzy elements to the sound, to create a more sophisticated style of funk. Cuts
include "Waiting At The Bus Stop", "Mr. Nothin",
"STP", "Be Real", "Keep On Saying", "Acknowledgement",
and a number of versions of "Find A Friend".
On Kilowatt, The
Kay-Gees are burning bright – in that razor-sharp approach to funk that made
the group one of the best of their generation – able to strongly step on the
dancefloor, but without losing any of the rawness of their funky 45 years! The
balance is a bit like Fatback at their best – and that group is maybe one of
the few we'd match next to the Kay-Gees at this point – and although the
basslines are up a bit more than before, they never hit any sort of too-cliched
or overdone modes, as in some of the other big funk groups of the period.
Guitars riff mightily, lyrics are plenty catchy, and the rest of the
instrumentation is right on the money – on cuts that include their
"Kay-Gee's Theme Song", plus "Fat Daddy", "Celestial
Vibrations", "Space Disco", and "Kilowatt/Invasion".
CD features bonus tracks – "Hustle Wit Every Muscle", "Cheek To
Cheek (12" mix)", "Kilowatt (12" mix)", and
"Kilowatt (12" ext)". ~ Dusty Groove
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