Steve Arrington x Dam-Funk: Ohio is Advanced

Dam-Funk (pronounced "Dame-Funk") has been involved in making music for quite a while playing as a session musician on rap records (Master P's I Got the Hook-Up being among them!) but truly burst onto the scene a few years ago with his multi-part album Toeachizown. That album was HEAVILY influenced by 80's g-funk like the legendary Ohio band Zapp & Roger (who revolutionized electro, and dance music in general by being among the first to use the vocoder and electronic beats), but was almost post-funk. It modernized the sound, keeping in the funk but elevating the beauty of the actual sounds being produced. Time has allowed for a re-evaluation of sound fascism (to paraphrase Oneohtrix Point Never) in so many realms. And the vintage equipment Dam-Funk uses produces gorgeous sounds. Deep, plush, shimmering, squirming sounds. Funk divorced of the "funky" trappings that an endless parade of images of bell-bottoms, afros and platform shoes has imposed on our brains. Still,this stuff makes me want to cruise the strip at like 15 mph!

Dam-Funk - Toeachizown (D-F's theme) mp3

Dam-Funk - In Flight mp3

Now Dam-Funk is working with Steve Arrington who is the former front man of Slave, (also from Ohio) the classic funk band of the 70's and 80's. Steve seems to have gotten older and put on a little weight and lost the jheri curl but has kept the slithering, shifting, soulful funk vocal skills. I honestly had heard very little of Slave before this...but I may have to go check some out because these two songs are the JAM. "Going Hard" (now available as a 12" single) especially has been on repeat for a whole day. Literally. And "I Be Trippin'" is quickly rising to meet it. I have never been a huge funk fan. I mean Funkadelic's "Can You Get to That?" (mp3) is one of my favorite songs of ALL TIME, and Shuggie Otis' Inspiration Information is really excellent, but beyond that I have found a lot of it not to my liking. But Toeachizown really turned my head and has opened me up to what is truly one of the formative and most organic electronic musics out there. I love when a musician lets me hear a genre I previously couldn't dig. It's one of the most enjoyable things I experience as a listener. He is producing a whole album for Steve Arrington and I really can't wait. Arrington's vocals are so tight and full of joyous detail. The overdubs of "yeah," "business," and "going hard" alone are so fun I can't stand it, and Dam's production is gorgeous and impeccable. Do yourself a favor and let the funk in.

Steve Arrington x Dam Funk - Goin' Hard by stonesthrow

Steve Arrington x Dam-Funk - I Be Trippin' mp3