By Way of the Drum

By Way of the Drum
Label: Hip-O Select
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: By Way of the Drum
Not all that is lost should be found, and in the case of the until-now-unreleased 1989 Funkadelic album, By Way of the Drum, its legend would be more secure had it never seen an official issue. Just as George Clinton was clearing himself of the mess caused by his penchant for signing will-assign-rights-for-dope contracts, the music he had laid down with Parliament Funkadelic in the ’70s had become the mandatory ingredient in the sample stew of hip-hop. ‘Atomic Dogâ?� aside, the ’80s had not been musically kind to the passengers of the Mothership, and By Way of the Drum was intended to remedy that. By incorporating the wisdom of longtime Funkateers with the hip factor of new blood, it should have been an instance of the master schooling the disciples. Instead it proved that Clinton and the Funkadelic enterprise were out of sorts. (Cocaine, as they say, is one helluva drug.) A woozy cover of ‘Sunshine of Your Loveâ?� and its sonic counterpart ‘Some Fresh Delicâ?� (on which the ghostly guitar of Eddie Hazel is summoned via sampling) are the album’s highlights; the rest of it is burdened with horridly uninspired synth-drum patterns and a plasticky, processed sound unaligned with the organic wildness of Funkadelic’s better moments. Were it recorded in ’82, it would have been revolutionary. In ’89 it was out of date. Today, it’s little more than a completist’s puzzle-piece.

This article appears in May 9-15, 2007.