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Bon Jovi, the Breeders and Sonny Rollins will never walk into a bar together
Published on 6/30/08
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An ideological cousin to Bushwick funk-revival house Daptone Records, Williamsburg’s Truth & Soul label has released a steady stream of exceptional 45s recently. (That’s 45rpm vinyl, kids.) In addition to new analog-soul platters from instrumental outfit El Michels Affair and Bronx River Parkway (a Latin-funk combo pairing young NYC musicians with a revolving cast of mostly septuagenarian vocalists from Puerto Rico), the label has also reissued forgotten ’70s sides from such obscure names as Tyrone Ashley’s Funky Music Machine and Timothy McNealy.
Fallin’ Off the Reel II gathers from each Truth & Soul release since 2006, and there’s not a dud in the musty, dusty bunch. While McNealy’s 1972 cut “I’m So Glad You’re Mine” and “My World,” an ’07 recording from chitlin’-circuit vet Lee Fields, sound like they could have been culled from the same studio session, a handful of tracks, like El Michels Affair’s organic interpretation of Pete Rock’s “The PJs,” speak to the link between the soul/funk revival and sample-driven hip-hop production. (Like the original, this version features vocals from the Wu-Tang Clan’s Raekwon.) More subtle is Bronx River Parkway’s “La Valla”; with its insistent piano and uptempo funk backbeat, the track (which also features San Juan singers the Candela All Stars and a spoken rant from Puerto Rican visual artist Jose Parla) sounds like piano-loving hip-hop producer Marley Marl directing the Fania All-Stars.
—Jesse Serwer
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