TITLE: Ifetayo
LABEL: Soundway
REVIEW: The ongoing project to reissue every international funk record ever recorded continues apace. Soundway, which have been doing a bang-up job in Caribbean crate-digging over the last few years, has unearthed a gem here. Black Truth Rhythm Band, from Trinidad & Tobago, released their one and only album in 1976. American funk is a big influence on the band (track 1 is a fine example), but so are jazz and 1970’s Afro-rock (see track 4). As a Trinidadian band, it’s unsurprising that they employed steel drum (tracks 3 and 6) – what’s novel is that the pan player is fully integrated into the ensemble, not tacked on as an afterthought nor used as a novelty. This is some highly sophisticated, multicultural dance music that is standing up well to the passage of time – in a number of ways, it sounds like it could have been recorded in 2011. It’s easy to joke about reissuing every funk record of all time, but as long as researchers keep coming up with worthy items like this one, I’m hoping the trend lasts a few more years. Or even decades.TOP TRACKS: 1 3 4 6
ALSO RECOMMENDED: 2
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