The
Ace
label's astonishingly deep dig into the vaults of Detroit music maven
Dave Hamilton
continues on this fifth volume, which as the title states is dedicated to the
funk
(or
-oriented
soul
) he was involved in recording in Detroit between the mid-'60s and mid-'70s. Despite the wealth of tracks in which
Hamilton
had a hand, he never did experience much success as a music entrepreneur, and it's no surprise that few of the artists on this compilation will be familiar to
fans, even collectors (unless you count
himself, who was the artist of record on five tracks). In part, that's also because about half of this material was previously unissued, though the other half did find release on small labels. Though what's here is not going to challenge
James Brown
or
Funkadelic
in significance (and in fact is sometimes quite derivative of those exact two artists), it's diverse, often eccentric (if sometimes generic)
that is often worth a listen.
imitations, for instance, don't get much hotter or accurate than
Billy Garner
's
"Brand New Girl, Pt. 1."
Johnny Walker
's instrumental
"Funky Trip"
is as strange as
psychedelic
-influenced
gets, with a bellowing ship foghorn threatening to submerge everything else in the track at points.
's own
"The Deacons"
is a little like a
garage
Booker T. & the MG's
, with a cool low-budget choked organ sound. The influences of bands like
Dyke & the Blazers
is obvious in some other tracks, yet the cuts often have a raw, unself-conscious edge -- as well as unpredictable bits of
jazz
,
rock
blues
blaxploitation
, and sound effects floating around that are untutored even by the standards of many obscure local
productions. It's still only for the
deep funk
specialist, but as releases tailored toward such crate-diggers go, it's certainly above average. ~ Richie Unterberger