Supersonic Space Cadets

Various ‎Artists - Space Funk (Afro Futurist Electro Funk In Space 1976-84) [SJR CD449 UK 2019 FLAC]

I acquired this for the extremely rare 7 Below Zero Band track ...which is a lesson to all in the fine art of slap funk bass from around the three minute mark. The rest seems to be rather special as well!

The Black and Latin American space programme of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s was born on dancefloors and took more bodies into orbit than NASA ever did. Afro Futurist Electro Funk In Space 1976-84 charts a major phase shift between boogie-disco and electro-funk that came about as African American and Latin American artists really embraced the potential of computers and synths to express their ideas about alienation and utopian escapism. Taking cues from science fiction comics and movies, and the sheer electric sensuality of funk and electronic music, they laid down the grid behind myriad forms of modern dance music - from hardcore, jungle and garage to EBM/electro and EDM - which still informs music now, nearly half a century later.

With cherry-picking digits, the Soul Jazz lot pluck out some real doozies here. We’re most partial to the more explicitly plugged-in joints such as Jamie Jupiter’s mighty ’84 electro staple Computer Power, the devilish strut of Osé’s Computer Funk, Robotron 4’s itchy minter Electro-?, and Rodney Stepp’s jagged vocoder zinger Break-Out (coincidentally all from ’84, a truly vintage annum). But the rest is evidently prime material, too, especially if you’re into swanging disco drum breaks and the fruitiest synth vamps, most notably in the proper rarities like 7- Below - Zero Band’s ‘choppy, uptempo Seven (We Are), and the kind of gear that you’d expect to hear on an Electrifying Mojo show, including Ramsey 2c-3d’s astro-boogie heater Fly Guy And The Unemployed, the booping disco raid of Supersonic Space Lady, and L.E.O.’s super obscure Fee Fi Fo Fum.

01 LEO - Fee Fi Fo Fum
02 The Sonarphonic - Super Breaker
03 Santiago - Bionic Funk
04 Frank Cornilius - Computer Games
05 Juju  & The Space Rangers - Plastic
06 Jamie Jupitor - Computer Power
07 Solaris - Space Invaders
08 Copperfield - Make It Good To Me Baby
09 Robotron 4 - Electro-?
10 Ernest Flippin II - Supersonic Space Lady
11 Funk Machine - Funk Machine
12 Ramsey 2C-3D - Fly Guy and The Unemployed
13 Osé - Computer Funk
14 7 Below Zero Band - Seven (We Are)
15 Rodney Stepp - Break-Out