balls to the wall (of funk) - 777-9311

I have basically been looping this song all week, because 777-9311, by The Time, is one of the ballsiest pieces of funk--and maybe song--ever. First, you've got the one, or the absence of it. Where most funk draws its, uh, funk from the first downbeat of the bar, but here we just have this batshit crazy linndrum thing, which hits on like every other beat to create one of the most unique, syncopated grooves out there. 

Then stemmping from that, we got some faintly kaleidoscopic guitar strumming (I dunno what chords those are but they are sweet), a rubbery baseline that, if you sat there for an hour trying to learn like I did it before giving in and looking it up, you'll find is actually two basslines, one slap, one synth, which, voiced really close together, but actually totally different, and some classic Prince synth stabs. Plus, the chorus , instead of just dividing up the beats evenly across the lyrics "seven seven seven nine three one one", holds the three extra long, then sings the more awkward, three syllable "eleven", because that is just a little weirder and more awesome. And, Prince even manages to shred it up at the with a three minute guitar solo. Would any hit song ever have that now? (or be 8 minutes long, for that matter?). Also, all the parts of this song, are written, produced, and played by Prince--with the sole exception of Morris Day on lead vocals--so, all non-Prince musicians, good luck with your life.

Yet despite all this, it's not in that "wooooamg weird beat" mathy kind of way that you feel or move to this song--it's just 100% pure funk. If only more musicians were exploring this kind of shit (or were secretly Prince), the world would be  better, funkier place.

Also, as a bonus, here is another ballsy ass Prince protege song that is actually written/produced by Prince (though with other musicians): the extended version of "Glamorous Life" by Shiela E. Ok it's mostly just great, and really the only particularly ballsy parts are the absolutely wacko (for a pop song at least) sax solos (credited to Larry Williams, a dude who clearly knew what was up in the 80's) but you kinda gotta love it.

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Also: are these youtube embeds working for people? or are they too awkward/slowing the page down too much? I could always try to find some other way to embed audio

mathy mondays ii

Nod your head pretentiously--it's mathy monday!

Herbie Hancock - Ostinato (Suite For Angela)

Math: it ain't just that rock shit. Before the more oddly metered parts Fusion became, well, this, bands like Herbie's Mwandishi Sextet were coming up with weirdly funky planetscapes like the above. Built around the repeating bassline/bass clarinet riff in god-knows-what-time signature, these dudes stir up some seriously cosmic shit--which, maybe I'm just weird, but listening to anyone funk it up in like 15/8 or whatever (wikipedia says 15/8) for 13 minutes straight, complete with requisite weirdo analog synth blasts, is just fucking fantastic. It's too bad everyone stopped exploring this kind of sound after like a year, but I guess it must have been pretty difficult to sustain. But you know what? Fuck that--music is definitely long overdue for a mathy ass Kozmigroov revival.

sunday jamz i

I done kicked 'em out!

Slipped Disc - Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Dat bass! I just heard this shit for the first time last night, very loudly, and having that blasting gyroscope of a bassline churning beneath a rotating cavalcade of strings, weird little guitar jibberings, oohs, ahhs, and, of course, french accented singing was enough to send any hamster scurrying off to the internets to hear it again, and again, and again... The song was apparently written by the bassist, Phillipe Lemongne, who unfortunately seems to be on nothing else, much to the detriment of funk. Now I am going to check out the rest of this album, Mambo Nassau, 'cause that shit was recorded in the Bahamas.

EDIT: Also, does that crazy ass skittery drumbeat not prefigure that Low End Theory skittery drum steez? (and contemporaneous craziness like this)