Posted on 04/24/2008
So much of today’s retro-minded music begs one simple question: what’s the point? Most funk revival albums fall into that category. Sure, it’s great that you can still see this stuff performed live, but when it comes to an album, why listen to someone’s homage when the genuine article still sounds so good today? Across genres, sounding like the classics is often a great way to compete with one’s contemporaries, however at what point do the classics themselves become the unbeatable, chief opponent? Well, today’s funk ensembles need to take note; Lettuce got it right with on this one. Skating that fine line between perfect admiration and self-imposed irrelevance like a young Victor Petrenko, Lettuce delivers 14 unabashedly influenced, yet fresh, tracks of pure funkiness. Some are covers. Some are originals. Some are structured songs. Some are loose grooves. None of these tracks, however, prompt the all too common question: “wait, why don’t I just listen to Tower of Power instead?” Plus, no blasphemo, but with RAGE! there’s no corniness to sift through, unlike with some of our dusty favorites.

Before I elaborate, allow me explain who comprises this unfortunately named band. Due to sheer spotlight theft, I’ll give top billing to the group’s drummer, Adam Deitch. His relentless break beats not only give RAGE! enough funk to sit next to the legends, but the near drum-machine sounding compression with which he was recorded gives the group just enough modernity to avoid the aforementioned pitfall. Astute hip hop heads might recognize Deitch from the Fyre Dept production crew (50 Cent, Kweli, Redman, etc.). Fellow Fyre fighter Eric Krasno holds down guitar duties along with Shmeeans, while Eric “E.D.” Coomes proves he’s no softy on bass. Kranso of course hails from Soulive, as does Lettuce’s keys player, Neal Evens. A pair of deadly saxophonists round out this group formed at Berklee back in ’92.

RAGE! is both a tribute to funk in whole, and a tribute to specific funkateers on a track by track basis. Lettuce manages to maintain a cohesive sound throughout the LP, while allowing very specific influences to make themselves known from song to song. The album’s opener, “Blast Off” picks up right where Bootsy’s “Pinnochio Theory” left off. Similarly, “No Need to Understand” is definitely the JBs joint, while “Speak E.Z” must be the crew’s response to the “Here Comes the Metermen.” “Makin’ My Way Back Home,” featuring vocalist Nigal Hall, has just enough call-and-response and sloppy percussion breaks to make this D.C. tribute an outright ode to Go-Go. Likewise, “Sam Huff’s Flying Raging Machine” shows us what Minneapolis might have sounded like if synthesizers were never invented. From EWF, to Sly, the Head Hunters, Kool and the Gang, and ZAPP, seemingly no corner of funk is left unacknowledged. On “Mr. Yancey,” the group even eulogizes the god himself.

It is the sublime cover of Sir Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up,” however, that is most likely to drop jaws. This time around none other than Dwele is ending his verses right where the horns are. The result is not only the highlight of the disc, but it might actually cause stock in Prozac to drop.

This isn’t music for every mood, but it sure as hell sounds good.

 

- M. Steve Hammer