NOW Music are excited to present the next instalment of the ‘NOW 12” 80s’ series – NOW 12” 80s: 1982 – Part One – Out January 19th!Across 4 CDs, 48 extended, full-length or remixed versions reflecting the shift from Disco being the dominant genre in the Chart, to it being enriched with the developing Synth-Pop and New-Wave sounds of the New Romantics. Despite this sonic shift, the 12” single played an even more vital role than it had done with Funk and Disco, providing fans with more time on club dancefloors and more room for artist and producer experimentation. This edition of 12” 80s presents part one of 1982 – such massive year for Pop that we had to split this year into two parts to present all of the essential tracks.

Ruth Copeland's second Invictus recording retains the services of Funkadelic vets Eddie Hazel, Bernie Worrell, Tiki Fulwood, and Ron Bykowski, but like the preceding Self-Portrait, I Am What I Am simply fails to jell. Without the leadership and focus of George Clinton, the music zigs and zags in too many opposing directions. Credit Copeland for ambition – the opening antiwar epic "The Medal" recalls the politicized psychedelic soul of Norman Whitfield-era Temptations classics like "Cloud Nine" and "Ball of Confusion," while "Crying Has Made Me Stronger" shifts gears completely to embrace gospel – but her reach consistently exceeds her grasp. When I Am What I Am does come together, it's impressively heady stuff. Particularly noteworthy is the deep-fried funk outing "Suburban Family Lament," which showcases Hazel's scorching guitar as well as Fulwood's much-sampled and monstrous introductory drum break.

Thanks to their first-class training in funk and soul while playing in James Brown’s Band, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker were the obvious choice when it came to participating in George Clinton’s P-Funk empire – the Godfather of Soul had had an enormous influence on Clinton anyway.
In 1977, Clinton and Bootsy Collins produced "A Blow For Me, A Toot For You", the début album by Fred Wesley & the Horny Horns – an ensemble with Wesley on the trombone, Parker on the tenor and alto saxophone, as well as Rick Gardner and Richard 'Kush' Griffith on the trumpet. The majority of the numbers are by Clinton and Collins, so it is not really surprising that much of the LP is pure P-Funk.

Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow Review by Ned Raggett
It's one of the best titles in modern musical history, for song and for album, and as a call to arms mentally and physically the promise of funk was never so perfectly stated. If it were just a title then there'd be little more to say, but happily, Free Your Mind lives up to it throughout as another example of Funkadelic getting busy and taking everyone with it. The title track itself kicks things off with rumbling industrial noises and space alien sound effects, before a call-and-response chant between deep and chirpy voices brings the concept to full life. As the response voices say, "The kingdom of heaven is within!" The low and dirty groove rumbles along for ten minutes of dark fun, with Bernie Worrell turning in a great keyboard solo toward the end – listening to it, one gets the feeling that if Can were this naturally funky, they'd end up sounding like this. From there the band makes its way through a total of six songs, ranging from the good to astoundingly great. "Funky Dollar Bill" is the other standout track from the proceedings, with a great, throw-it-down chorus and rhythm and a sharp, cutting lyric that's as good to think about as it is to sing out loud. The closing "Eulogy and Light," meanwhile, predates Prince with its backward masking and somewhat altered version of the Lord's Prayer and Psalm 23. At other points, even if the song is a little more straightforward, there's something worthwhile about it, like the random stereo panning and Eddie Hazel's insane guitar soloing on "I Wanna Know If It's Good for You," with more zoned and stoned keyboard work from Worrell to top things off. The amount of drugs going down for these sessions in particular must have been notable, but the end results make it worthy.

five-CD box set containing a quintet of original albums from the Funk legend: Ahh… The Name Is Bootsy Baby!, Bootsy? Player of the Year, Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band, This Boot Is Made for Fonk-N and Ultra Wave.

George Clinton's post-bicentennial message to those in the "chocolate cities" was that America could be theirs, too, without any loss of their own black, regional identities. One Nation Under a Groove remains Funkadelic's most provocative release, as well as one of the funkiest long-players released in the disco era. The band vamps on a world where people of different color play each other's songs ("Who Says a Funk Band Can't Play Rock?!"), lose their inhibitions (the classic title track), and bond together with the glue of shared secrets (the wonderful "Groovallegiance"). Standout: the slow-grooved "Into You," in which a lover vows to stay true or a patriot pledges devotion to a new flag–take your pick. You might think that a complex and moving ode to commitment is out of place on an album with such political overtones, but it's not. It's really the quiet-storm centerpiece. –Don Harrison –This text refers to an out-of-print edition of this title.