Dec 16, 2011

RhoDeo 1150 Grooves

Hello, today's artists have been up to the downslope and carved out their own niche in the global music mind..PPP FFFunk. From the start of the seventies onwards they laid their grooves on us, and even, as you can see at the bottom, if i posted several vinylrips 4 years ago (Rhotation Grooves 10 & 20), I think a further and deeper look into their discography is essential. So the coming weeks Fridaynght Grooves will be...

A Parliafunkadelicment Thang

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The P-Funk story began in 1956 in Plainfield, New Jersey, with a doo-wop group formed by fifteen-year-old George Clinton. This was The Parliaments, a name inspired by Parliament cigarettes. By the early 1960s, the group had solidified into the five-man lineup of Clinton, Ray "Stingray" Davis, Clarence "Fuzzy" Haskins, Calvin Simon and Grady Thomas. Later, the group rehearsed in a barbershop partially owned by Clinton and entertained the customers. The Parliaments finally achieved a hit single in 1967 with "(I Wanna) Testify" while Clinton began commuting to Detroit as a songwriter and producer for Motown Records.

By the late 1960s Clinton had assembled a touring band to back up the Parliaments, the first stable lineup of which included Billy Bass Nelson (bass), Eddie Hazel (lead guitarist), Tawl Ross (guitarist), Tiki Fulwood (drums), and Mickey Atkins (keyboards). After a contractual dispute in which Clinton temporarily lost the rights to the name "The Parliaments," Clinton brought the backing musicians forward and christened them Funkadelic,a s Funkadelic, the group signed to Westbound in 1968, and the five Parliaments singers were credited as "guests" while the five musicians were listed as the main group members. Around this time, the group's music evolved from soul and doo wop into a harder guitar-driven mix of psychedelic rock, soul and funk, much influenced by the popular musical (and political) movements of the time. Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone were major inspirations. This style later evolved into a tighter guitar-based funk (circa 1971-75). The debut album Funkadelic was released in 1970.

Meanwhile, Clinton regained the rights to the name "The Parliaments" and initiated another new entity, now known as Parliament, with the same five singers and five musicians but this time as a smoother R&B-based funk ensemble that Clinton positioned as a counterpoint to the more rock-oriented Funkadelic. By 1970, George Clinton had regained the rights to the Parliaments name: he then signed the entire Funkadelic lineup to Invictus Records as Parliament, as a smoother R&B-based funk ensemble . The group released one album -- 1970's Osmium -- and scored a number 30 hit, "The Breakdown," on the R&B charts in 1971. With Funkadelic firing on all cylinders, however, Clinton decided to discontinue Parliament (the name, not the band) for the time being. After a hiatus in which Clinton focused on Funkadelic, Parliament was signed to Casablanca Records and released Up for the Down Stroke in 1974. The two bands began to tour together under the collective name "Parliament-Funkadelic.

Though keyboard player Bernie Worrell (b. April 19, 1944, Long Beach, NJ) had played on the original Funkadelic album, his first credit with the conglomeration appeared on Funkadelic's second album, 1970's Free Your Mind...And Your Ass Will Follow. Clinton and Worrell had known each other since the New Jersey barbershop days, and Worrell soon became the most crucial cog in the P-Funk machine, working on arrangements and production for virtually all later Parliament/Funkadelic releases. His classical training, as well as the boom in synthesizer technology during the early '70s, gave him the tools to create the synth runs and horn arrangements that later trademarked the P-Funk sound.

Two years after the addition of Worrell, P-Funk added its second most famed contributor, Bootsy Collins. The muscular, throbbing bass line of Collins had already been featured in James Brown's backing band (the J.B.'s) along with his brother, guitarist Catfish Collins. Bootsy and Catfish were playing in a Detroit band when George Clinton saw and hired them.
Funkadelic released five albums from 1970 through early 1974, and consistently hit the lower reaches of the R&B charts, but the collective pulled up stakes later in 1974 and began recording as Parliament.

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Funkadelic's self-titled 1970 debut is one of the group's best early- to mid-'70s albums. Not only is it laden with great songs -- "I'll Bet You" and "I Got a Thing..." are obvious highlights -- but it retains perhaps a greater sense of classic '60s soul and R&B than any successive George Clinton-affiliated album. Recording for the Detroit-based Westbound label, at the time Funkadelic were in the same boat as psychedelic soul groups such as the Temptations, who had just recorded their landmark Cloud Nine album across town at Motown, and other similar groups. Yet no group had managed to effectively balance big, gnarly rock guitars with crooning, heartfelt soul at this point in time quite like Funkadelic. Clinton's songs are essentially conventional soul songs in the spirit of Motown or Stax -- steady rhythms, dense arrangements, choruses of vocals -- but with a loud, overdriven, fuzzy guitar lurking high in the mix. And when Clinton's songs went into their chaotic moments of jamming, there was no mistaking the Hendrix influence. Furthermore, Clinton's half-quirky, half-trippy ad libs during "Mommy, What's a Funkadelic?" and "What Is Soul" can be mistaken for no one else -- they're pure-cut P-Funk. . Never again would the band be this attuned to its '60s roots, making self-titled release a revealing and unique record that's certainly not short on significance, clearly marking the crossroads between '60s soul and '70s funk.


Funkadelic - Funkadelic (rem) ( 429mb)

01 Mommy, What's A Funkadelic? 9:06
02 I'll Bet You 6:11
03 Music For My Mother 5:38
04 I Got A Thing, You Got A Thing, Everybody's Got A Thing 3:54
05 Good Old Music 8:04
06 Qualify And Satisfy 6:18
07 What Is Soul 7:40
Bonus Tracks
08 Can't Shake It Loose 2:28
09 I'll Bet You 4:10
10 Music For My Mother 5:17
11 As Good As I Can Feel 2:31
12 Open Our Eyes 3:58
13 Quality And Satisfy 3:00
14 Music For My Mother 6:14

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Digitally remastered and expanded edition of the legendary Funk band's 1970 debut album including seven bonus tracks. The bonus cuts feature three non-album singles sides and four tracks unissued at the time of recording, including an unedited version of 'Breakdown'. Osmium has a psychedelic soul sound with a spirit of experimentation that is more similar to early Funkadelic than the later R&B-inspired Parliament albums. It was originally released in July 1970 on Invictus Records.

Since its re-release in 1990, Osmium has been distributed numerous times by various labels in the U.S., Europe and Japan, sometimes under alternate titles that have included Rhenium and First Thangs. A number of these reissues have featured material that was not included on the original album, such as unreleased tracks and singles that were recorded around the same time as Osmium.

The personnel for this album included the five Parliaments singers and the five backing musicians known as Funkadelic. The same personnel also recorded as Funkadelic, releasing that act's self-titled debut album also in 1970. After the release of Osmium, contractual difficulties prevented further recording under the name Parliament until 1974, when Clinton signed that act to Casablanca Records and positioned it as an R&B-inspired counterpoint to the more rock-oriented Funkadelic.

The first Parliament album as such was a mixed-up mess of an affair -- but would anyone expect anything less? The overall sound is much more Funkadelic than later Parliament, if with a somewhat more accessible feel. Things get going with an appropriately leering start, thanks to "I Call My Baby Pussycat," which makes something like "What's New, Pussycat?" seem like innocent, chaste conversation. After a stripped-down start, things explode into a full-on funk strut with heavy-duty guitar and slamming drums setting the way, while the singers sound like they're tripping without losing the soul -- sudden music dropouts, vocal cut-ins, volume level tweaks, and more add to the off-kilter feeling. Osmium's sound progresses from there -- it's funk's fire combined with a studio freedom that feels like a blueprint for the future. Bernie Worrell's keyboard abilities are already clear, whether he's trying for hotel lounge jams or full freakiness.


Parliament - Osmium (rem) (544mb)

01 I Call My Baby Pussycat 4:23
02 Put Love In Your Life 5:01
03 Little Ole Country Boy 3:56
04 Moonshine Heather 4:03
05 Oh Lord, Why Lord/Prayer 4:56
06 My Automobile 4:43
07 Nothing Before Me But Thang 3:53
08 Funky Woman 2:53
09 Livin' The Life 5:50
10 The Silent Boatman 5:44
Bonus Tracks
11 Breakdown (Mono Single Version) 2:30
12 Red Hot Mama 4:26
13 Come In Out Of The Rain 2:56
14 Loose Booty 10:18
15 Fantasy Is Reality 3:56
16 Unfinished Instrumental 5:10
17 Breakdown (Stereo Unedited Version) 3:50

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It's one of the best titles in modern musical history, for song and for album, and as a call to arms mentally and physically the promise of funk was never so perfectly stated. It lives up to the title throughout as another example of Funkadelic getting busy and taking everyone with it. The title track itself kicks things off with rumbling industrial noises and space alien sound effects, before a call-and-response chant between deep and chirpy voices brings the concept to full life. As the response voices say, "The kingdom of heaven is within!" The low and dirty groove rumbles along for ten minutes of dark fun, with Bernie Worrell turning in a great keyboard solo toward the end. From there the band makes its way through a total of six songs, ranging from the good to astoundingly great. The amount of drugs going down for these sessions in particular must have been notable, but the end results make it worthy.


Funkadelic - Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow (237mb)

01 Free Your Mind And Your Ass Will Follow 10:04
02 Friday Night, August 14th 5:21
03 Funky Dollar Bill 3:15
04 I Wanna Know If It's Good To You 5:59
05 Some More 2:56
06 Eulogy And Light 3:31

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elsewhere

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain ( 71 ^ 87mb)
Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove (78 ^ 95mb)
Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove bonus ep ( ^ 38mb)
Funkadelic - The Electric Spanking Of War Babies (81 ^ 99 mb)
Parliament - The Clones Of Dr. Funkenstein ( 76 ^ 99mb)
Parliament - Funked Up ( ^ 94mb)
Parliament - Funked Up 2 ( ^ 98mb)

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The multiupload.com links just go to a blank page. Any chance for an upload to a different locker? No problem if not just throwing it out there. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Dear Rho

Please re-up these fantastic P-Funk albums.

Many thanks

Anonymous said...

Humble request for a re-up of Free Your Mind, please? Many thanks in advance!

Anonymous said...

Hi Rho,
Could we get a re-up of these please.
Cheers

Anonymous said...

Thanks Rho