If your life has been transformed recently by trouser flapping, cardigan-wearing retrospectives like Kill Bill and Starsky and Hutch then ‘Boogie Cops and Disco Pimps’ is going to stretch your lapels just that little bit further. And even if you’ve absolutely no interest in these. trainer-spotting style flicks then you still might get a bit of a buzz out of knowing where folks like Amp Fiddler, Jamiroquai, Metro Area and Usher learned all their tricks as ‘Boogie Cops and Disco Pimps’ contains enough of these spills to fill a fleet of orange space-hoppers and a streetful of lava-lamps.
Whoops, synths that squelch, slap and pull basslines, crazy crazy flutes, weightless Philadelphia strings, call and answer vocals and chikka chukka guitars – they’re all here – and soaked in as much flange and phase as you could throw at a space-shuttle. But that’s what makes it classic. Age cannot wither nor custom stale their funky, infectious variety: Issaac Hayes’ ‘The Theme From Shaft’, Lakeside’s ‘Fantastic Voyage’, William Hutch’s ‘Theme Of Foxy Brown’, Tom Scott and Andy G’s ‘Starky and Hutch’ theme tunes, Leon Haywood’s seductive ‘I Want’a Do Something Freaky To You’, Patti Labelle’s ‘Lady Marmalade’ and Van McCoy’s ‘The Hustle’.
It would be easy to flout this record’s faults (it has too many pop acts for one thing: The Jackson Five, David Soul, The Real Thing, The Fatback Band, Odyssey, KC and The Sunshine Band) but what it lacks in consistency it makes up for in quality set-pieces. Just because it’s post-modern doesn’t make it good. But for the most part it is.
Anyway, the forecast is good for the weekend, what could be better than sticking this on your car stereo, pulling on an afro and cruising up and down Sainsbury’s car park looking for a piece of the action.