Quantic Soul Orchestra – Stampede (Tru Thoughts)
April 24th, 2003 by jesse belle
The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Stampede (Tru Thoughts LP)
Recent years have seen a serious revival for the deep funk sound. It started modestly enough with Northern Soul Collector Keb Darge and a few associates (Snowboy, Ian Wright et al) making the shift to playing rare-as-hens’-teeth seventies tracks, in response to a growing drought of undiscovered Northern gems. Then came the phenemonen of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist’s ″Brainfreeze″ mix CD, and a flood of reissues of varying legality/quality, allowing all and sundry to enjoy classic tracks that (in many cases) were originally pressed in tiny numbers independently of the mainstream music industry.
Suddenly hard, drum heavy funk seems to be everywhere – even on fried chicken commercials (The Majestics ″Funky Chick″ for the spotters out there). Now that funk is officially cool, being appreciated far beyond the hip-hop DJ/record nerd axis, a plethora of new release records have begun to appear. The most successful of these have been those by artists not limited to recreating the original sound – too many have relied on chucking a few drum breaks in, and not much else – but also able to push the music on from the time that disco left it for dead.
Both the New Mastersounds and The Poets of Rhythym have turned in progressive, super-heavy long players (although the Poets have been at it since before there was a ″scene″ to speak of). And now, with ″Stampede″ we get our first chance to see if the Quantic Soul Orchestra can deliver on the same scale.
The Soul Orchestra’s story started with ″Super 8″ a hyper, razor-sharp funk 7″ – reputedly recorded solely by Will Holland (Quantic) apart from the saxophone, which was laid down by his sister! The track proved a dancefloor favourite, and since then the band has expanded to a ten-piece, the sound of which is ably captured on Stampede
From the off it’s clear that the LP is, in places, a different kettle of fish to recent QSO single releases. The title track kicks off with the deepest of basslines, and follows with shuffling drums and space-age stabs – this isn’t nostalgia, this is where funk could have gone. All too quickly ″Raw Ingredients″ is next. But any disappointment at the brevity of the opener is quickly allayed by this storming Afro flavoured roller.
Sadly the next track ″Super 8 (part 3)″ is perfect support for the adage ″there’s always one″. It’s not a bad song, but it leaves you fondly reminiscing for the bite of parts 1 & 2, and another Will Holland production; The Limp Twins ″Living Well″; which the sub-standard vocal bears a certain resembalance to. The band are swiftly back in the game though with the laidback flute groove of ″South Coastin″, and four tracks in, it’s so far, so good.
It’s at this point that the boys unveil their secret weapon, with the golden voiced Alice Russell making her first appearance on ″Something That’s Real″. It takes a full ninety seconds, but once Alice really lets fly it’s absolute confirmation that the Quantic Soul Orchestra aren’t just about a groove – they’ve got songs too.
Which brings us nicely to ″Hold it Down″, a cover of a 4 Hero song written twenty-five years after the funky drummer stopped drumming. If the sleeve notes are to be believed the track came about by coincidence, with the vocal laid down in one take as Miss Russell warmed up. It’s no surprise then, with Funk being what it is, that this is the Orchestra’s big number: everything hanging together in three minutes of gloriously pop perfection, real hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck stuff.
From here to final track ″Take Your Time, Change Your Mind″ the pace picks up with the Afro/Latin ″Assassin″ and ″Babarabatiri″ flashing past pleasureably and a cover of Bonobo’s ″Terrapin″ showing exactly what funk is all about in a post acid house world.
″Take Your Time, Change Your Mind″ itself is a lengthy jazz influenced vocal cut, and is a beautiful way to bring things to a close after the adrenalin rush that precedes it. All in all the Quantic Soul Orchestra have excelled themselves, creating an LP of forward looking rough cut funk. Wonderfully the most retro things about ″Stampede″ are the drum sound (recorded in ″various garages and bedrooms″, which is as it should be) and the mock yellowing sellotape in the sleeve design. Replace ″Super 8 (part 3)″ with parts 1 & 2 and this would be a stone cold classic – but even left just as it is, it shows plain as day that funk still has a lot of love to give.
Duck
The Quantic Soul Orchestra’s ‘Stampede’ is out now on Tru Thoughts
Quantic Soul Orchestra perform at The Big Chill – Eastnor Castle 2003
