Review: Princess Freesia - The Rainbow Ride

There's a saying, "never judge a book by its cover", or in this instance, "never judge an album by its cover", but when I saw the cover of this album, I had a feeling it would be excellent, and as I listened to it, I was damn right about that! It most certainly is excellent!

Princess Freesia was born over in Australia, but has since come over here to dark and damp England and is assigned to the UK label "Digisoul", working with Soulpersona who released the album entitled "The Lapdancer" in 2011. One year later in 2012, Princess Freesia released this album, "The Rainbow Ride" also on Digisoul, in which she was both singer and songwriter to all the material on this CD.

"The Rainbow Ride" as an album is a beautiful spectrum of really luscious funky grooves, which as Princess Freesia put it on the liner notes, "each track has its own personality". Yet as any beautiful rainbow appears in the sky, all different colours shine together perfectly, and this album hangs together in the exact same way. There are so many audible influences going on in this album: one moment there's a strong presence of a retro jazz-funk, and then the next moment Princess Freesia is dropping a 90s style drumbeat, but everything hangs together with the same boogie feel. It's obvious by the cover and the overall late 70s/early 80s boogie feel that this album is strongly retro, and here at The Flagship For Funk, we ADORE those who go unashamedly for the retro, but Freesia also manages to keep a modern and digital feel to the whole project without the classy retro feeling being compromised in any way, which is just awesome! The production and engineering is also flawless on this album, giving the tracks the richness of sound that they deserve, and giving the best of both retro and modern.

Princess Freesia has a fantastic voice that sets the grooves alight time and time again. Her vocals are similar in sound to Pauline Wilson of Seawind, but Freesia has her own style in her own right which matches perfectly with her equally fantastic groove making abilities! And damn, the grooves are tight! 13 tracks of brilliance! Immediately she locks onto the classy early 80s boogie feel with her second track "Gonna Be Allright"; a nice paced dancer with a totally relaxed ambiance that hits the peaks of brilliance for modern soul and funk. After which, the third track, "Stellar Sight" is a marked contrast. It has the sounds and the feel of an early 80s slowjam; the kind of song that would be on a Raydio or Instant Funk album as a slowjam, but Princess Freesia has added a more midtempo pace to this type of sound with a nice modern sounding drumbeat which speeds it up nicely to make a very unique sounding track. To hear a song like this is a really refreshing change and shows that there's still clever songwriting abilities about these days: as most songwriters opt comfortably for a "modern soul stepper" or a "slowjam", Princess Freesia takes us back to the days of Slave's "Let's Spend Some Time", Maze's "Joy And Pain" etc, where a song couldn't be as easily pinned down between "stepper" or "slowjam", which makes "Stellar Sight" a fascinating and unusual song in the fold of this album!

"Playgrind", the fourth track brings out that retro jazz-funk groove, with the flute breaks in the background. Freesia uses her vocals very artfully on this track, using her "vocals like a jazz instrument" as Steve Arrington would put it. The following track "Taffeta" brings some nice smooth saxophone work with a heavy 90s drumbeat, which hangs together beautifully and might just be my favourite track on this album. Track eight, "Thinkin About You" is the slowest paced track on the album, and has some really nice playful synth work in the background with a nice squelchy synth bass. Again, although this song is the closest to a "slowjam", it isn't entirely like a slowjam, and is written in a nice and unpredictable way. Princess Freesia then lays down a really nice groove on the tenth track, "Play With Me", which is really reminiscent of the mid-late 80s indie modern soul, done with a nice smooth electro style drumbeat and then on track 12 lays down a heavy bass driven boogie called "I Can See", which has a nice EWF vibe to it.

This album is easily one of the best funk/soul/boogie albums of the past 10 or twenty years. It is definitely the best one of the new decade, without competition. There are so many musical influences flourishing within each track, yet Princess Freesia has spun everything together in a unique way which is one heck of a rainbow ride!! Let's just hope there's a second rainbow ride coming from the amazing Princess Freesia!!

Review: Mutiny - Funk Road

So here we have it! Mutiny have broken their 17 year silence, and have finally released their 5th album to us!

Actually, this CD was in fact, recorded in 2011, only just released on "Catbone Unreleased" this year. It's odd to think that Mutiny would hesitate on releasing this album, or that it could possibly be considered something that wouldn't be released. The awesome artwork on this cover was done by none other than my mentor and legendary soul guru whom I fill in for, The Funk Priest!!

Mutiny were, of course, a mutiny from Parliament/Funkadelic in the late 70s, fronted by P-Funk drummer Jerome "Bigfoot" Brailey, whom felt disillusioned with the management of Parliament/Funkadelic under George Clinton. Turning a negative into a positive, Jerome Brailey splintered off and produced some many fine albums under the name "Mutiny". This album is no exception!

Those who listen to Mutiny's albums and expect Funkadelic have come with the wrong approach entirely. Sure, the zaniness of P-Funk is present in Mutiny, and the bold edge, but there are noticeable differences. There's an indescribable mellowness and a laid back attitude about Mutiny that Funkadelic don't quite have. I'm not saying that's a better or worse thing, but it's a noticeable difference. With Funkadelic, you can never quite just sit down and relax when listening to it; you're absolutely compelled to get off your ass and jam! With Mutiny, you can sit and chill to their sounds much easier, even when they're rockin' hard. Another difference between Mutiny and Parliament/Funkadelic is Mutiny/Jerome Brailey's bigger tendency to experiment. Their previous album from 1996, "Aftershock 2005" was an unusual fusion, adding a lot more rock to the funk than usual, and a lot of 80s synths to nicely even out the grooves. This album, however, has tracks that take funk right back to the 60s and early 70s. Perhaps the most startlingly convincing is the track "What?.YEAH!!!" on this album, which even sounds retro in its audio production. Had it not been for the raps and some of the vocals, you would almost think this song was from back in the 60s. Another nod to the 1960s is a really nice cover of Wilson Pickett's "Ninety Nine And One Half", which almost has a slight "glam" feel to it, and the James Brown type riffs on the track "Ouch".

It's not all rooted in the 1960s, though. There's a really nice spacey synthed out track called "Something Better To Do" which evokes the classic zany P-Funk styles of the mob back in the early 80s. Also we have a nice sequenced instrumental funk hit to start off the album, called "Thought Patterns" with some wicked drum loops, which could possibly be my favourite track on the album. "Delta Dog" is a re-make of George Clinton's "Atomic Dog", done in a blues version with a 90s-style drum machine. "Diggity Don Dotta" brings some very heavy rock onto this album, and "Lights, Camera, Action" has the feel of a late 90s midtempo groove! I could go on, but the bottom line is that this album, "Funk Road", is delightfully versatile, and should undoubtedly whet your appetite in some form, whatever your personal taste is in funk & soul.

Buy this album soon and get listening to it!!

Hidden Treasure!

Here is the second Flagship Funk mix which is guaranteed to be good to your earhole! This mix is dedicated to the hidden and hard to find songs of some of our favourite bands; discography hunters of various funk/soul groups often think they've got the lot by the artist, only to find a hidden 12" single not assigned to an album, or an extra song hidden on what appears to be just another compilation! Here, I've compiled some of these hidden treasures in this mix. Enjoy!!

1) Kleeer - Oooh With You (1993)
2) Enchantment - Feel Like Dancin' (1985)
3) Con Funk Shun - Throw It Up, Throw It Up (1996)
4) The Deele - The Only 1 (2007)
5) Bar-Kays - Put A Little Nasty On It (1993)
6) Steve Arrington - No Reason (1991)
7) Slave - That's The Way I Like It (1984)
8) The Dazz Band - My Little Princess (Unknown Year)
9) Richard "Dimples" Fields - Baby's Got It Goin' On (1994)
10) Brick - That Button (2009)