Psych Funk 101

Psych Funk 101
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/19/11
Psychedelia involving more or less funk, from around the world, mostly recorded in the 70’s. Seems like the funkier stuff is in the first half dozen songs –tracks 7-9 are very free-form trippy instrumentals. Then there’s a couple traditional Arabesque with more or less funk elements, then it just plain gets strange. Yay!
1. 3:58 **(Turkey) long ney solo intro, then swingy midtempo bass driven funk with shrill fuzz-laden guitar. Also some sort of dulcimer – interesting mashup of traditional folk traditions and psych-funk. Instrumental.
2. 3:58 ***(Nigeria) somewhat relaxed midtempo soul groove with occasional lunatic yells, strong lyrics in English. Definitely a star for channeling Screaming Jay Hawkins – as well as for the farfisa solo.
3. 2:38 ****(Ethiopia) fine squeebly female vocals and lots of wah-wah.
4. 7:42 ***(Korea) farfisa chords and ponderous, despair-soaked guitar solo. Epic! Slow, attractive male vocals, lots of drama.
5. 3:58 ****(Greece) big, slow wah-wah-laden guitar and organs, morphing into midtempo kinda funky stuff. Female vocals – sounds a bit like Jefferson Airplane, only funkier. Lots of fuzz towards the end.
6. 2:47 ****(Iran) uptempo, funky, with soul strings – home-grown Isaac Hayes. Mostly instrumental, with just a few soul-makossa grunts.
7. 5:15 ** (Germany) Ha! THAT Ludwig! A few bars of the 5th, then full-on free-jazzy psychedelia. Like wandering right into the middle of an acid trip. Some totally tripping hippie chick wandering around with unblinking eyes, clacking tiny cymbals. Yikes!
8. 6:54 ** (Italy) random noises with bits of reverb for most of a minute, then a midtempo funky beat while the randomness continues atop it. Some dying whales midway through.
9. 3:36 *** (Italy) shrill squealy things and clangs – nice bass work, though.
10. 7:01 *** (Lebanon) belly dance music with attitude – and farfisa, synthesizer, etc. Interesting mashup. Male vocals – very traditional.
11. 7:47 *** (Egypt) keyboard hum and low guitar solo intro. Then clear, pretty, psych-y guitar, suddenly channeling Dick Dale. Then, outa nowhere – belly dance drums and cymbals. Then I guess there’s a bit of Bach. Gosh! Keeps mutating into different animals – very psych.
12. 3:27 ** (Turkey) lightning crash electronics, then extremely low drone (not great for radio… Then Also Sprach Zarathustra. That’s the first half… Then some pretty groovy little funky thing with bells. I really like the second half, but the first half was pretty cheap…
13. 3:34 **** (Russia) psych-funk fest par excellence. Gets kinda free form, but keeps very woobly funk bass. Instrumental. Gnarly.
14. 9:57 ** (France) lots of very low wind noises (again, kinda crap for radio, IMO) slowly getting bits of synth. After two minutes there’s a circus opera. Female vocals – no funk for miles, but plenty of weird. Oh! There’s the funk. Yup, this is weird alright!