Various Artists
The Funky 16 Corners
[Stones Throw; 2001]
Rating: 9.5
Indianapolis (also derisively known as Naptown) isn't known
for much. Sure, the place has a couple of perennially mediocre
sports franchises and a yearly drunken redneck gathering
disguised as an auto race, but that's about it. It's a place
people pass through to get to someplace else. It's also a
pretty weak place musically, save for a few stalwart soldiers
fighting the good fight.
But it wasn't always that way, as this comp attests. No longer
should Indy cling to such weak sources of musical renown as
"home of hardcore legends the Zero Boys"-- not when they can
lay claim to the Highlighters Band. In fact, the city's
visitors bureau and chamber of commerce would play Highlighters'
singles in their lobbies if the knew what was up, and they'd
have plaques on their walls reading, "Indianapolis, the city
that inspired Bay Area DJ par excellence Peanut Butter Wolf
to put together one of the greatest funk comps ever."
The story goes like this: while on a cross-country bowling
excursion (that's right) and record search, Wolf stopped in
Naptown and was introduced to Highlighters sax player Clifford
Palmer. Palmer played Wolf some of his band's old 45s and Wolf
was so taken by them that he decided his next project for
Stones Throw (his label, which put out Madlib's Quasimoto and
Yesterday's New Quintet projects, among others) would be a
massive old school funk comp.
And it's damn good, compiled with a curator's eye for detail,
from the pacing of the tracks to the meticulous liner notes.
And what incredible range of styles: hard funk, smooth soul
funk, jazz funk, instrumentals, shout-outs, anti-drug anthems,
positive ghetto jams, and every kind of post-JB funk you can
imagine-- seventy-plus minutes, all recorded between 1968 and
1974 (though most of it's from between '70-'72).
To be fair, not all the bands here are from Indianapolis, just
the best of the batch. The aforementioned Highlighters give
the comp its title with their titular contribution, which
tries to out-James Brown James Brown and comes as close as
humanly possible. Then there's Billy Ball and the Upsetters
featuring Roosevelt Matthews with "Tighten Up Tighter" and
its supercharged Booker T. groove; the Ebony Rhythm Band, who
provide the comp with excellent intro and outro excerpts; and
radio DJ-gone-funk-band-leader Spider Harrison with the
lurching syncopation of "Beautiful Day."
Of the non-Indy bands, there are several standouts, but the
most surprising is Bad Medicine, made up of a bunch of white
guys from upstate New York. Their "Trespasser" is what you
might call canonical funk: after hearing it, when you hear
the word "funk," this will be the sound you imagine. It's
pristine and by the books, but dead-on perfect. There are
two Texas Bands with killer cuts, too: Dallas' Soul Seven,
whose conservatory skills present maybe the hardest, rawest
funk of the lot, and Houston's Kashmere Stage Band, who take
the big band approach to funk.
If there's a problem with The Funky 16 Corners, it's
that it's exhausting to listen to all the way through. The
energy is kept at such a level that it's best to break it
down into two or three sessions-- don't try and take it in
all at once. You'll collapse.
-Jason Nickey, January 25th, 2002