Review: Aurra - Satisfaction

It took me a while to get this one through the post, but it finally arrived! The mysterious fifth album of Aurra, which has only surfaced in the record world this year!

There was a cloud over the whole matter of Steve Washington's departure from Aurra during the mid 80s, after the "Live And Let Live" album. Steve Washington recorded a solo album from 1984 called "Like A Shot", but I had no idea or couldn't have imagined before that he recorded an Aurra album in the same year. 

So the basic story of this album, according to the liner notes in this album, is that Steve Washington wanted to go beyond the relationship with Curt Jones and Starleana Young. He wanted to sell the rights of the performing name, "Aurra" to Starleana and Curt, but they felt that they shouldn't be sold something they believed they created in the first place. Steve Washington then met the singer for The Brides Of Funkenstein, Sheila Horne, soon to be Sheila Washington!

The liner notes also said that "Aurra" was created initially to be a more vocally based funk group, as opposed to the more instrumentally and musically based Slave. Steve Washington opted for a softer sound as opposed to Slave's harder sound. But in this particular album, Steve Washington deliberately went for basslines and grooves that evoked the memory of Mark Adams and his playing style. Without a doubt, this album generally leans to a more "harder" sound than the other Aurra albums. Washington also recruited the legendary Mark "Drac" Hicks, a fellow former Slave member for the guitar work on this album, and also recruited session musician A.C. Drummer, whom worked previously on other Aurra albums and Mark Stevens: brother of Chaka Khan.

The album has a total of eight tracks on it, but I'll go through what I think are the highlights of the album .(of which there are plenty!)

The first song, "Turn The Lights Down Low" has a really nice squelchy synth bass (Poly-6?) laid down throughout the groove, along with Washington's bass playing. This song has a very nice  atmospheric spookiness about it, which is a perfect way to start this "mystery" album, giving it even more charm! One of my favourite songs on the album, easily, and it's obvious to see where this song represents the way that later 80s funk would be shaped; it's important not to forget that Steve Washington was actually very important for shaping late 80s funk, via his role on George Clinton's "R&B Skeletons In The Closet" album from 1986. 

"Satisfaction" was a song where Steve wanted to bring out the style of Mark Adams! Stevie definitely gave justice to The Hansolor's pioneering and unique style of bassing on this track! 

"Never Met No One Like You" has some really nice keyboard work on it; Steve Washington uses the Prophet and other synths to give this song the classic spacey/sci-fi synth-funk sound that Slave heavily opted for from the time of "Visions Of The Lite" onwards. 

"My Lovin' Is For You" is a nice slow soul song that is more typical of what Aurra did, but Sheila Washington definitely gave that song a quality in its own right that's very different than Starleana and Curt! One to ride in the sunset with, definitely!!  

"Perfect Date" was released previously this year as a 7 inch, and has a more disco/boogie feel to this track than the previous four - more similar to the early Aurra albums. Really classy track here!

...."Hello World!!" The sixth track on the album is called "Something Tells Me", which also is in the style of the early 80s boogie. Beautiful uptempo soul song, and Sheila really sets the song alight with her awesome vocal work!

"Maybe I'm Wasting My Time" is possibly my favourite track on this album; the synths in the background of this song are golden - this song sounds more like the material on the solo album by Steve Washington in the same year as this album. 

The last track on this album, Steve and Sheila do a slightly 80s P-Funk sounding groove, with lots of insane vocoders, vocals spinning here, there and everywhere, and Drac giving his gritty and hard guitar riffs in the background! 

The release of this album has been a real highlight to the year for the world of funk! It has all the makings of becoming a classic 80s synth-funk album in time which will be highly regarded by everyohne, so it definitely should not be slept on! Get it now if you haven't!