Funky st

Rip It Up, Issue 80, 1 March 1984, Page 28

Funky st

Herbie Hancock Future Shock (CBS) What's funk? What's jazz? Whatever the answer, Herbie's not telling us - he's having too much fun to worry about it. Playing around on his Dr Click rhythm controller and E-MU 4060 digital keyboard with his friends Bill Laswell and Sly Dunbar. But this' isn't a case of soulless machine work. Curtis Mayfield's Future Shock' is done wonderfully, with

great imitation Mayfield vocals. The closing track, 'Rough', is a neat mixture of scratch and mix with Dunbar laying down nice sparse rhythms - anything but soulless. This is Herbie's most satisfying work to date, with none of that "I can get down as well as you can" attitude that spoils his earlier work. It also contains that monster 'Rockit', the 'Wipeout' of the techno age. Have some fun with Herbie. KB Prince Charles & City Beat Band Gang War (Virgin) This is Prince Charles' first album, but the second to be released here. It's a fusion of Bootsy Collins and George Clinton's P-Funk and the hard street funk of the Ohio Players and early Kool and the Gang. It's

almost a history lesson in 70s funk he even attempts a Barry White/Isaac Hayes pastiche in the insipid 'Passion', the only real dud on the album. The rest of the tracks are interesting exercises in hard funk. The only other thing 1 don't like is his use of imagery (sex’ cash, ; streetlife) - when compared to Rick James or that other Prince's 'Lady Cab Driver' it becomes cartoonish. Prince Charles appears to be the Mr T of i fun KB Natalie Cole, I'm Ready (Epic) The question is, ready for what? 1 can understand albums like this, they present a large existential void. There's just nothing there. Ms Cole, with one hit and several lacklustre albums, just can't hit the big time. This record has the required number of uptempo and ballad tracks, each with the prerequisite cliches patterned Stanley Clarke "funk" bass, ."soul", vocal and clever string and horn arrangements. But there's no meaning in the design. -For. real soul architecture listen to Luther Vandross and Aretha Franklin. KB Earth; Wind and Fire '-.''-’/"v Magnetic (CBS)

I must admit that I find Maurice White's vision of the universe rather hard to take. But I've always loved the beauty of the music tracks like 'Boogie Wonderland', 'September' and 'Shining Star' are still great listening. The problem with this album is that there's more Maurice White sermonising than there is good groove music. It lacks that hard cutting edge and due to the predominance of synthetic programming the famous EWF horns have to take a back seat. It's not a great EWF album but it's better than most current releases. Hot cuts are 'Magnetic', ,'Moonwalk' and the mid-tempo Touch'. KB