Gonzalez: Gonzalez - 1974

Forget their late seventies disco pop hit, this was UK funkers Gonzalez's 1974 impressive debut album. 

After years of thinking they were American, I was recently surprised to learn that Gonzalez were a British funk band. Recording in the seventies, they were, somewhat incongruously, best known for their effervescent disco pop hit I Haven’t Stopped Dancing Yet in 1979. This was not a track that was representative of their output in the slightest and this album, their debut from 1974, was actually a pretty heavy offering of gritty, urban funk. 

In doing a bit of research on them I read that it was a favourite album of Queen bassist John Deacon in the late seventies, when he was getting inspired by funky bass lines to compose tracks like Another One Bites The Dust. To be honest, though, although the album is funky as hell, there is nothing that you could identify as having influenced Deacon. 

Discovering an album like this, all these years later, is always a pleasure. Pack It Up and Clapham South provide a solid funk intro to the album. Underground Railroad and their theme tune, Gonzalez are both fine funky efforts too. Together Forever is a Tower Of Power-style funky ballad. Saoco is another instrumental with a frantic, funky beat and the one track I knew before, from a Blue Note funk compilation is Funky Frith Street. I don't need to tell you that it is funky as apeshit, do I? This is a highly recommended unmined gem in the raw.