School House Funk

Schoolhouse Funk
Amateur funk. This is a collection of some of the funkiest moments found on real school band recordings. It was put together by obsessive record collector DJ Shadow, from his vast collection of obscure breaks. There are some really funky moments on this disc, and some of the stage dialogue is hilarious (for example track 14: A Toast to the Boogie). Other tracks are more interesting to a beat making crate digger, with a few seconds of cool guitar or a nice open drum break, but are overall very amateurish (Track 9). This disc is definitely worth checking out, funk sounds best when it's rough and raw and these kids are as raw as it gets. Recommended tracks: 8, 6, 1, 3, 12-18, 20

1) Spoken intro, talent show dialogue over funk guitar
2) Chugging slow funk with horns, warbling vocal at start
3) Band intro (lo-fi) over Marva Whitney medley, awesome female vocal
4) Down-tempo soul, building layers
5) Hilarious school band rendition of Cisco Kid
6) *Another War song, this time a very tight melancholy instrumental
7) Interlude with drum break
8) *Cover of Dennis Coffey's Scorpio, up-tempo with a large tight band. I actually like this version better than the original
9) Funky wa-wa guitar, tone deaf horns
10) Big intro, down-tempo, some nice moments
11) Spoken intro, smooth fusion jazz
12) Funk with wailing horns
13) JB style funk with horns
14) Long stage dialogue from school talent show
15) Up-tempo, lots of horns
16) Herbie Hancock fusion classic, super 70s synthesizer solo, big horns
17) Vocal soul with screaming fans
18) Funky medley, drum breaks and horns
19) Interlude w/ funky wa-wa guitar
20) Tight, complex fusion
21) Interlude
22) Lo-fi Funkadelic cover, abrupt ending

Tom Purcell, November 2000