Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 04/08/2008
The final volume of
BBE's fantastic series,
Keb Darge's Legendary Deep Funk, Vol. 3 gathers another set of 20 sides from the collection of the U.K.'s foremost expert on vintage
funk rarities. If the very obscurity of this music is what entices collectors to hunt down the original vinyl, it's the surprisingly consistent high quality that should convince dedicated
funk fans to seek this material out, regardless of whether anything here rings a bell. With no signs of slowing down this far into the series, volume three just reinforces what an amazing wealth of great, D.I.Y.
funk slipped through the cracks the first time around -- it evokes a strong grassroots movement that could give rise to great music just about anywhere. Volume three has a higher concentration of medium-tempo tracks, which mutes some of the manic energy of the first two volumes (especially the second), but the overall quality doesn't suffer one whit -- the grooves keep on pumping with authority. There's no shortage of bright, horn-driven
funk:
the Unknown's
"Pad Out," Freedom Now's
"Sissy Walk," the Personations'
"Future," and
River City's
"Fell Into a Bag" (where
Darge's fellow collector and DJ,
Ian Wright, is brought in to sweeten the original mix). There's a nice bit of female
soul in
Francine Thomas'
"I'll Be There," and a few
disco-tinged selections toward the end that nonetheless keep the
funk quotient high. Most great deep
funk comps have at least a couple of crazy vocal cuts, and this one is no exception; on
"I'm Hungry," Johnnie Morisette manages to criticize the president's apathy toward poverty right after threatening to break his waitress' jaw, and
Paul Jackson's
"Quack, Quack, Quack" -- as the title suggests -- is an inspired bit of madness. A great way to cap off an excellent series.
~Steve Huey, All Music Guide
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