Mighty Superfunk, The (Rare 45's And Undiscovered Masters 1967-1978 Vol.6)

信頼のブランド“ACE”傘下の“BGP”によるファンク・マニア必携シリーズの第6弾！ディープ・ファンク・クラシックとして語られているThe Philips Brothers「Who Stole The Cookie」をはじめ、Love Experience、Elroy Peaceなどのレア曲から、Adolph Jacobs、Gunga Din、Joe Haywoodらのクラシックスまで間違いない選曲。

The sixth volume of Ace's long-running SuperFunk series is a pretty typical one: 20 pretty high-class rarities from funk's golden age, seven of them previously unissued, and none of them from famous performers. Perhaps the label needs to dig even deeper than usual as time goes on, getting into the vaults not only of unreleased material, but also sources (such as companies specializing in Latin music) that researchers might not necessarily assume hold some pure funk. While the results couldn't be said to be on par with the best funk of the era, they're pretty good (if occasionally generic), and considerably above the quality of what you'll find in the average rarity compilations assembled for some other genres of the era, like '60s garage rock and Northern soul. Some of the better outings here include the exuberant disc-opener by the Love Experience, "Are You Together for the New Day?"; the Philips Brothers' outrageous courtroom scenario "Who Stole My Cookie"; Mr. Jamo's "Shake What You Brought with You," elevated by electric sitar; Elroy Peace's "New Day," which is laced with some really weird wobbly wordless vocal sounds; and James Carpenter's lewd "Party Time." True, the covers of "Cold Sweat" and "It's Your Thing" seem rather unnecessary in view of the obvious considerable superiority of the originals. It's also true that you might want to start the CD at different places or use random shuffle on repeat plays, since the similarity of the vibe in many cuts causes attention to wander when heard all at once. ~ Richie Unterberger