RETRO REVIEW: Mother’s Finest’s ‘Meta-Funk’n-Physical’ (2003)

As Mother’s Finest’s kick-starter campaign to enlist their fanbase in being a part of their first new album for 10 years heads into its final week, I thought it a good opportunity to tale a look back at their 2003 release ‘Meta-Funk’n-Physical’..

I remember the first time I listened to this track. I was anxious to get it home and put it on the player. ‘Funk-a-Wild‘ promises much and delivers even more. An insidious synth sequence starts a stealth-like groove, lulling you into a false sense of security before the riff hits you, dripping with the funk, the staccato bass…Baby Jean’s wonderfully provocative lyrics draw you in and suddenly you’re into the killer chorus. Your head’s banging, your foot’s tapping, and you’re still only on track one. Oh yeah, this is gonna get Meta-funk’n physical!

On ‘Bring it’ Mother’s Finest display their innate ability to throw damn near everything in the cooking pot and make it taste good….rapping over Moses Mo’s almost eastern trippy guitar lines, Glenn Murdock and Joyce Kennedy lead us into a growling hard rock chorus, and it all fits like a glove.

I involuntarily break into a smile when I hear Wyzzard’s wicked popping bass syncopated with Moses’ sledgehammer chops underpinning Baby Jean’s chorus on ‘I Believe’. These guys make the groove sound effortless…and in reality it is. Because you cannot learn the groove. You got it, or you ain’t. And Mother’s Finest OWN the groove.

The rest of the album is just as eclectic – beautifully performed ballads such as ‘Don’t take your love’, the quirky funk of ‘What happens when we die?’ and the inspired guest-laden take of Hendrix’s  ‘If 6 were 9’.

‘Flat on my back’ drifts lazily into the detuned stomp of ‘The N-Groove’ a 21st century re-boot of their very own back catalogue, reinventing ‘Like a Negro’ and ‘Niggiz cant sang Rock’n’Roll’.

The final two tracks on the album illustrate Mother’s Finest’s joyous schizophrenia perfectly. ‘Set me Free’, a beautifully rendered classic ballad showcasing Joyce Kennedy’s excellent vocal, followed by ‘Hard time’, a soliloquy  that she delivers in spoken word over a slick syncopated groove, dropping in and out of gospel influenced chorus with ease, then punching you in the face with a full-on rock guitar solo. They do that a lot, Mother’s Finest. They Surprise you. Because they can.

Donate to their Kickstarter campaign. I have, because, 10 years on,  I wanna get surprised all over again.

To Donate, Click on the Image below:

Kev Moore

Mother’s Finest – The Kickstarter campaign

I’ve always been drawn to that bastard offspring of music – Funk Rock. Ever since a guy at my student’s union going by the unlikely name of Andy Starbuck took me aside and played me ‘Hot Wire’ by Trapeze. That led me to explore damn near everything Glenn Hughes had recorded, and in the late 70’s when I became a professional bassist and singer and went to tour for several years in Scandinavia, I discovered Mother’s Finest. Perhaps it’s the bassist in me that loves my riffs hot heavy and funky – but whatever the reason, I loved their mix of rock funk and blues, Baby Jean’s vocal screaming out over Mo’s sledgehammer riffs. When Brian Adams got Tina to sing on ‘It’s Only Love’, I was like “MF have been there and done that a decade before you dude!”.

Mother’s Finest are a pioneering, historically important band. And against all the odds, they are still out there doing it today. They haven’t released any new music for a decade, but all that’s about to change. In conjunction with the fundraising site Kickstarter, they have launched a campaign to create a brand new album with the help of their loyal fanbase. If you haven’t heard this band, you need to check them out. They have inspired so many bands that followed them. Extreme, the Dan Reed Network, and don’t tell me Prince never had them on his turntable!

It’s a niche music, because traditional metalheads shy away from it, and funk purists too, for different reasons, but for me, damn! Funk rock is greater than the sum of its parts, and nobody delivers it like Mother’s Finest. Check them out , and then head to the pledge site at the link below the video and sign up. Be a part of it and help them make their next killer album!

THE MOTHER’S FINEST KICKSTARTER PROJECT- DONATE NOW!

Kev Moore

FLOGIC!

This is normally something I’d post in my Want Some Moore blog, as it is a song I wrote to accompany one of my comedy ‘rants’ that I have the privilege of presenting on Bay Radio. Bay Radio is an English language station with a listenership of over 1 million, that broadcasts along the Spanish costas, from Valencia all the way down to Almeria. I feature twice a week, on The Sunset Strip, Friday nights 9.30pm CET, and The Sunday Brunch, around noon CET. Find out how to listen live by clicking on the icon.

Anyway, the theme for this week is feminine logic, ‘flogic’ for short – and please ladies, don’t kill me, because it’s all very tongue in cheek, and a bit of fun. I really enjoyed writing the track. (If you want to hear the rant too, tune into Bay, or check back on my Want some Moore blog next week, when I’ll put it up on a player)

It’s a funky kind of thing, with a nice bass line, and very choppy staccato guitars, and a lovely contrasting guest vocal from Kay Frances, whose album I produced a few months back.  The guitar ‘solo’  such as it is, was a bit of an experiment, removing the low E and tuning Keith Richard style, and giving it a ‘chordy’ sort of vibe. enjoy!

Kev Moore

Gil Scott-Heron dies, aged 62. R.I.P.

One of the seminal black artists who rose to prominence in the 70’s,  Scott-Heron was something of a pioneer. He’s been labelled as the Godfather of rap, but he was much more than that, and it seemed to be a title he wore uneasily. his sparse rhythms and street poetry were of a higher order than most of what gets churned out today. My favourite track of his was “The Bottle” – and I was lucky enough to meet him when our bands were staying in the same hotel in Essen, Germany, back in the 90’s.

Rest in Peace, Gil, and thanks for the music.

Kev Moore

Lessons from the Master

Meeting the Master

Some days ago, I flew to the UK to attend a long-overdue concert on Monday night in York by one of my greatest musical inspirations. He goes by many names: The Voice of Rock, The Funkmeister, Big Daddy, even Glenn Hughes…..but for me, he is simply the Master.  Backed by a superb band, he owns the stage, stomping around with an energy that belies his years, delivering his bass lines and sublime vocals with an effortless grace.

He played two songs on Monday that drove right to the heart of the passion he ignited in me to become a bass-player/singer. “Sail Away” – one of my favourites from the classic “Burn” album by Deep Purple – perhaps one of the first bass riffs I ever learned, and “Keepin’ Time” – the blockbusting opener from Trapeze’s third album “You are the Music….we’re just the band.”

When these songs came out, I was an impressionable, awkward youth, stumbling through my early teens. I was already a drummer in a band, occasionally singing, but when I heard Glenn’s breathtaking vocals, and pounding funk-laden rock bass, I just knew what I was going to be.

Unbelievably, that was forty years ago. He strides onto the stage at the Grand Opera House in York, a legend undiminished, and as I remarked to him in the chill of the night outside the stage door as the band left to continue the tour, he is like a fine wine, getting better and better with age. Slaying his demons, he has become a testament to belief in the music, and boy, does the music do the talking for him. In an age where kids have role models that it seems effortless to surpass, Glenn Hughes is from a different era, where aspiring musicians could draw inspiration by capturing just a fraction of the talents of these guys that wandered across the rock landscape of the early 70’s. Punctuating his set with snatches of self-deprecating, wry humour, I sense a man totally at ease with his stage persona, a man who has come home.

It speaks volumes that his playing and singing has exactly the same effect on my now, as in the early 70’s. It fires me. It makes me want to go home and practice, and play, just make music.

The guy sat next to me had brought his young teenage daughter along. As the last notes faded into the shadows of the old auditorium and the audience headed out into the night, he turned to her and said: “You can revise for your A levels tomorrow. This is all the education you need.”

It’s certainly been enough for me. Glenn, I salute you – you’re still The Master.

Kev Moore

Funked up – Song for the Saints

I’ve done a rough mix of one of the tracks from the “Blue Odyssey” project – ‘Pass the Biscuits’ – and sent it over to my mate Stef for him to add his distinctive drumming to.  In the meantime, I’ve turned my attention to ‘Who Dat’ – which will be the second of three songs that relate to the New Orleans part of our journey around the Southern states.

It really is a vehicle for the chant of the New Orleans Saints American football team –who dat say dey gonna beat dem saints?!! and I wanted a N’awlins funk back drop to it.  A consequence of working with Stef again – some thirty-odd years later (!)  is a chance to revisit some strange time signatures and rhythms. Our old band Crosstown Traffic took such musical meanderings to the Nth. degree, and when I played some of the old tapes to my son Corey recently, he was blown away!

So yesterday I began to tack a passage onto the main funk theme where I can keep the listener guessing. We were always proud in the old days that people couldn’t dance to our stuff! This track promises to lull people into a false sense of security, then throw them for a loop just after the chorus. That’s the beauty of recording and releasing material on your own label – You can do any damn thing you want!

Kev Moore

…..and that’s jazz

L-R Kev Moore, Pepe Mena, Ron Johnson @ Jazz Life Cafe

Living down here in Mojacar, I dont always get the opportunity to gig as much as I’d like. The shows with BC Sweet and Christie are usually spaced throughout the year, and I do a lot of thumb-twiddling in the meantime. A couple of years back, my friend, Saxophonist Ron Johnson, ran a restaurant and music bar called “Sax on the Beach” and he, I and Pepe Mena, an excellent local Spanish drummer – formed an improv jazz-rock trio to while away the hours. Here’s a pic, courtesy of Pepe’s my space, of the three of us joined by Brendan O’Dee on keys, playing at the Jazz Life cafe in Mojacar village.

Expanding my musical horizons like this is very useful, and ultimately rewarding. From improvising with these guys, I came up with the bass riff which would eventually become “A Cat called Caramel” which will eventually feature on my solo album.

Ron’s back in Canada now, putting together a huge soul band, keepin’ da funk alive!

Kev Moore