Keep On Steppin

Thick, throbbing funk sums up this waxing, with absolute groove highlights on “Mr. Bass Man” (a deliciously slow-cruisin’ rhtyhm bonanza), the hard socking title-track and the LP’s unsung hero, “Feeling“, a thumpasauric bass-adventure that should have gone on for at least several more minutes. 

Best known for their brand of ‘street funk’, there’s plenty of that here as well: the playful, incessant “Stuff” rides a persisting guitar lick while Curtis implores everybody to ‘git on up and do it’. 

“New York Style” features more of that ‘uncut’ party down funk; Curtis affirms his North-Carolina roots on this stutter steppin’ funk gem, after which the whole band gets down at a Big Apple Saturday Fish Fry… Swamp funk in the middle of NY, dig it… More of that pumping funk madness comes with the Sly Stone-esque “Wicki Wacky” (more gurgling bass loops here courtesy of Johnny Flippin), featuring brilliant scat-like vocalizing while the groove goes up, down, back up again and deep down in the pocket… 

Ballads and love songs never were Fatback’s forte, and while still mildly funky, the romantically tinged “Love” and “Breaking Up With Somebody You Love” aren’t as essential as the tour de force of vicious street funk on display here.