Their 1973 self-titled album sank without a trace as the band toiled
in the shadows of Chicago's South Side scene. They fit right in with the
other challenging acts in the scene, including the Art Ensemble of
Chicago, Sun Ra, Phil Cohran, the Pharaohs and Earth, Wind & Fire
(in their pre-disco days), but in the end they just couldn't get
themselves heard over their neighbors.
Their album is a swirling near-masterpiece that pulls together
smoking funk rhythms, strands of free jazz and deep soul, conscious
lyrics, amazingly complex and harmonically sophisticated horn
arrangements, and assorted other ingredients to make music that fell
outside the lines of any particular genre. "If I Had My Way" is a
stone-cold classic of socially aware funk that never got its chance to
reach a wide audience, "I'm What You Need" is a surprisingly tender,
harmony-drenched ballad that proves they could write a pop tune when
they wanted to, and "Writin' On the Wall" is a tortured, lurching plea
for people to wake the hell up and look at the problems of the world
around them with an eye to solving them.
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