1984 was far from the Orwellian dawn of “big brother” in reality. As a matter of fact,artistic expression was such a diverse blend of older and newer influences. Music was feeling this most heavily. Synthesized new wave and electro styles had taken over in a major way. Yet there were still many live instrumental post disco/boogie funk offerings where electronics were mainly there as an accompanying sweetener. As much as many seem to dislike it,the Crusaders Ghetto Blaster is a superb example of this. It has both their strong live camaraderie and many of the newer synth funk elements as part of their brew.
Key Jams: “Dead End”,”Gotta Lotta Shakalada”,”Night Ladies” and “Zalal’e Mini”
This solo album by Walter Junie Morrison is one I’ve had since I started crate digging heavily in the late 90’s. And knew his name only because of his involvement with P-Funk. In keeping with mid 80’s recorded P-Funk,this album has a very pronounced electronic flavor-especially considering P-Funk helped pioneer electro funk to start with.
Key Jams: “Stick It In” and “Techno-Freqs”
Post disco veterans Shalamar went totally Minneapolis on their first album following the departure of Jeffrey Daniels and Jody Watley. Keyboardist/songwriter/singer Delisa Davis and guitarist/songwriter Micki Free (later referenced as part of a gag on the Dave Chappelle show about Prince and Charlie Murphy) give the album a more thoroughly electronic sound,yet filled with Shalamar’s customary melodicism.
Key Jams: “Dancing In The Streets” and “Melody ( A Melodic Affair)”
Human League are an excellent example to me of how many synth pop/new wave bands of the early/mid 80’s made very funk/soul structured music. Especially with the advent of the equally new wave/synth pop oriented funk of the Minneapolis sound during this same time. This was certainly their most danceable,funky and pop oriented record they had yet made. And with the production of Jam & Lewis right around the corner,it would only get even more so from here.
Key Jams: “Rock Me Again (Six Times)” and “The Sign”
Patti Austin’s sophomore album for QWest is a very different musical affair than her first from 1981. This album featured writing from Narada Michael Walden,and many of his musicians along with Quincy Jones. Overall the album generally has a more synthesized new wave rock flavor to it,especially on the first half. On the flip side however,Austin’s soulfulness and jazziness is given much more musical space to work with.
Key Jams: “Hot! In The Flames Of Love”,”Shoot The Moon” and “Fine Fine Fella (Got To Have You)”
The Dells were a group I was first exposed to through…well my first exposure to vinyl collecting in 1994 when the local college radio station WMEB was giving away all their vinyl for free-seeing no future in the format (little did they know). From what I know of them now,this mildly jazzy boogie funk album is not the sound that The Dells are generally known for. But its still an excellent mid 80’s comeback for this classic Chicago soul group.
Key Jams: “Love On”,”Come Back To Me”,”Don’t Want Nobody” and “Jody”
Bonnie Pointer’s third (and until 2011 final) solo album was revealed to me as being a main cause of her retirement from music. Considering her personal situation,that is likely untrue. And its an unsung album at that since it very much mirrors the strong focus on electro funk and soul that her other three sisters were doing at the time. Of course in this case,with more of Bonnie’s own flavors added to the mix.
Key Jams: “Your Touch”,”Johnny” and “Tight Blue Jeans”
Windjammer are a fairly obscure post disco band,who recorded three albums on MCA records between 1982 and 1985. This is their second album. This New Orleans based band had a musical approach similar to Earth Wind & Fire,Con Funk Shun and Heatwave. That is in the sense that they emphasized a blend of strong vocals,melody,arrangement and top shelf musicianship in their mixture of funk and soul ballads. Makes me wonder what forces didn’t allow this very commercially viable group to take off they way they deserved to.
Key Jams: “Call Me Up”,”You’re Out The Box” and “Sneak Attack”
Shannon’s “Let The Music Play” has become something of a classic in what is referred to as the Latin freestyle genre of techno dance music. That is blending synthesizers and drum machines with percussive Afro-Latin rhythms and melodies. And there’s no way I’ll disagree with that. Still this album isn’t one that generally lets up on the party atmosphere either-adding only the occasional slow ballad to change things up.
Key Jams: “Let The Music Play” and “Give Me Tonight”
1984 were a tremendous year for 12″ inch singles. One that I recently got a hold of was the one for the Jacksons’ 1984 song “Torture” from their Victory album. The extended remix really brings out that funky synth bass pulse on the intro,which is also prominent on the instrumental version on the flip side.
Interestingly enough,one of these singles is just a 7 inch 45. And its for Sade’s ‘Hang Onto Your Love”. For me anyway,that particular song needs no introduction for its stripped down sophistifunk vibe. I brought this because it had a non album flip side called “Should I Love You”,which turned out to be a melodically sunny pop/funk uptempo number of the highest order.
Herbie Hancock really got the “electric Afro-pop” sound flowing on his 1984 album Sound System. And this 12″ incher for its song “Metal Beat”,given to me for my birthday one year by Nigel Hall,really emphasizes this aspect with the very tribalistic aspects Hancock and Bill Laswell bring to this extended dance mix.
“The War Song” is one of my favorite Culture Club songs. It blends their Caribbean soul/funk sound with a social message that sounds silly on the chorus,but during the refrain becomes quite dramatically poetic. This single is very interesting is that each extended mix it has,from vocal to instrumental,bring in an strong sense of Afrocentric tribalism as each progresses.
The first time I heard The Police’s Andy Summer’s remake of “Also Sparch Zarathustra” was on a local cable access music video program hosted by local DJ Chuck Foster in the late 90’s. The video to this song was once used on the closing credits for that show. Being a lover of science fiction and the two films in Arthur C Clarke’s “space odyssey” series,Summer’s dance/funk remix really caught my ear. The flip is the brittle new wave rock of “To Hal And Back”,which a very strong jazzy melody to it.
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