Platypus

ロック・テイストも織り交ぜ、ここ日本でも人気が高かったPLATYPUS79年のデビュー作がボーナス7曲を追加して初CD化。

In an ideal world, any musician or singer who has talent would be able to make a good living at it. But we don't live in an ideal world and, every year, worthwhile bands fall through the cracks. In the late 1970s one such band was Platypus, a funk-disco unit that couldn't get arrested, and its lack of commercial success is regrettable because this is a decent debut. Released in 1979, Platypus has one foot in funk (in some cases, funk-rock) and the other in disco. The Ohio Players and Parliament/Funkadelic are prominent influences, but tracks like "Body and Soul," "Love the Way You Funk," and the opener "Dancing in the Moonlight" have a lot more disco gloss than one expected from either of those bands. At times, Platypus incorporates rock elements, especially on "Street Babies." One thing that separates this LP from a lot of 1970s funk efforts is its complete absence of horns -- many of that decade's funk bands were famous for their killer horn sections. But the Isley Brothers were a major exception, and the same goes for Platypus. This enjoyable, if imperfect, LP (which was the band's only album) didn't stay in print for very long. But it's worth hearing if, by some chance, a hard-to-find copy can be tracked down. ~ Alex Henderson|