(originally posted on Facebook)
I think I'm a fan of funk. On the one hand I'm a huge fan of the large instrumentation and arrangements in a funk band. It's like combining a ska band with a jazz quartet. Take the consistency and chunkiness of ska, add the complex movements and improvisation of jazz, throw all their talented musicians together, and you tend to get a multi-layered band with a big sound that you can really groove to.
On the other hand once I venture beyond the the big hits of funk music (for example "Superstition" or "Play That Funky Music") I find that funk can also slip into some annoying cliches. Take "Four Cornered Room" off this album. A two-chord progression played over a slow, simple drum patern with intermitent vocals and occasional toots from the other instruments. And it's 8 and a half minutes long. That's the biggest problem with this album. Three of the songs are way longer than they should be, constantly repeating the same musical phrase and never building to anything. If you're going to have a long instrumental song it really just has to build to something to be worth it. The World is a Ghetto just doesn't. 2 stars.
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