Kool & The Gang - Disc of the day

Kool & The Gang
Wild And Peaceful

(Mercury, 1973)

Jersey funkateers’ sixth album does good “wild”, forgets the “peaceful” bit.

Before the addition of unctuous vocalist James “JT” Taylor turned them into the soul gloop purveyors of Ladies Night and Celebrate!, Robert “Kool” Bell’s Noo Joisey-schooled ensemble were tough-edged jazzers who couldn’t sing for toffee but could funk for the Northern Hemisphere, a fact only underlined by W&P’s keynote tune, the baldly-titled Funky Stuff. A stupendously exciting, harmonically daring confection of Northern Soul whistle blasts, lurching horns and anticipation-stoking guitar synchromesh – not to mention entirely superfluous exhortations to “PARRRRTAY!” – it proved a breakthrough of sorts: puncturing the Billboard Top 40 and providing a treasure trove for hip-hop samplers thereafter. Funkwise, the good work is maintained by the more familiar Jungle Boogie and This Is You, This Is Me, yet even amid this veritable oasis of groove, the biggest eye-opener is the nebular title track. An unbuttoned nine-minute instrumental where all the horn players get to blow their shit like mad, it forces you to imagine what happened when In A Silent Way popped down the local singles bar for a cold one and a bit of an ogle. Niiice.

Danny Eccleston

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 26/03/2008