Album Review: DEFUNKT

CD Review (Rare)
Artist: Defunkt
Album: Journey (Live)
Label: Independent
Reviewed by: Kwelagobe Sekele

I just had to share this rare one with you. This album is Funky, funk all the way from the first to the last track – not counting the outro, it’s a funk odyssey, and the title ‘Journey’ is not a coincidence. I met the band leader, arranger and Trombonist Joseph Bowie at a Kwani Experience gig in Netherlands, he came to watch the young band as he had met and jammed with its instrumentalists a couple of days earlier. Old enough to be my father, this striking figure came backstage to congratulate the band on a great show. Defunkt have been around since the 70s and you can tell by how they funk it up. This is a live album with recordings from performances in Vienna, Austria and Netherlands with only one studio track, a Buddhist chant outro. There is no sleeping here, the whole band are on their toes from the rhythm section to the vocals and brass section, there’s just no room for sloppiness and listening to the album you can tell they were sweating it up. With close to 3 decades of existence it just shows you how big the world is, how vast the world of music and how much music is out there and Defunkt are just one of those hidden musical treasures in that vast world.

If you are a funk type person this album won’t disappoint you, filled with political, social and party lyrics dipped in a sauce of sustained organ sounds and crazy keyboards. By the fourth track ‘Why can’t you see’ they take it easy but don’t get fooled like I got fooled; it’s just the intro to the song. The song changes into a funky political rally. When the C.D. hits number seven ‘Ft. Greene’ it turns into an out-of-body experience with the keyboard taking you to were any keyboard has ever taken you before, not to that world of lovers and melody but to a freaky spiritual realm. I know some people who will skip it when it gets to that track, but if you are into experiments then stay on. ‘Poise’, number eight is a breather. I just dig the backing vocalists on this album, which is the rest of the band’s task actually; they just seem to be having fun. That also goes for the lead vocalist, he’s so old school. This album will grow you an Afro and take you back to the ‘Blackalicious’ Era. It’s not available in this country but you can check www.defunktmusic.com if you are interested.