Never mind the music, this album’s artwork is a joy in itself: kitsched up to the nines, as cheesy as Stilton, and a veritable dripping rainbow of space-era colours and disco font-types. It’s big; it’s pink and characteristically – it’s funkadelic.
Although straight as a di’ funk been muted in recent years by the growing chart presence of urban, house and hip-hop, it may be fair to say it’s making a comeback. And whilst that doesn’t mean that happy go lucky thumb-slappers like Level 42’s Mark King should be dusting down the wristbands just yet, it does suggest that the booty-shaking appeal of glitter dudes like Bootsy is on the up.
But with the power of the universe behind him – how could he ever fail?
Play with Bootsy: A Tribute to the Funk just goes to show that one of the genre’s most audacious and flamboyant practitioners is not ready to hang up his platforms and star-shaped guitars in favour of getting gritty on urban street. The whole album from start to finish is a sparkling cosmic floorshow of pure dance-calibre funk: not with the po-faced, retro archivist approach of scene stealers like Cassius or Metro Area – as credible as they are – but with the butt-shaking groove and grind of old.
Not that it’s entirely backward looking though. With A Tribute to the Funk, ex-Funkadelic bassist Collins has amassed an impressive all-star cast, ranging from emissaries of the new such as Fatboy Slim, Snoop Dogg, Rosie Gaines, Fat Joe, and Macy Gray to the old flavourites like Funkadelic bandmate George Clinton, Sly Stone and Bobby Womack.
Pure vintage funk worth twice its weight in gold.