Skull Snaps: Skull Snaps - 1973

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Lordy - what a veritable one-off funkin' treasure this great album is. Released in 1973 by a little-known (before or since) group it was a mightily appealing mixture of urban funk and robust but orchestrated soul that makes for a fine, superfine listen. 

The group's members remained faceless and the cover was a creepy creation that may have had record shop customers thinking they had come across a heavy metal band as they flicked through the sleeves. The group's name added to that feeling as well.

The album kicks off with a song in My Hang Up Is You that should have been a Northern Soul classic but remained a cult favourite (maybe that was its very stamp of authenticity, though). It has a Four Tops-like vocal and also a bleeping morse code keyboard coda that is so very Motown too. It totally kicks ass. Great track - one that drips in Northern-ness for me.

If the first track evoked the Four Tops, then Having You Around sees the group turning onto Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes and Didn't I Do It To You clearly summons up the strings and percussion-driven soul vibe of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Both these tracks showed that Skull Snaps soul deliver quality soul but the reputation this album has garnered over the years is one of being a copper-bottomed funk album. This is perfectly exemplified by three great funkers in all of the next three tracks - the  impressive, wah-wah grind of All Of A Sudden, the equally excellent Fatback Band meets War thang of It's A New Day and the (apparently) much-sampled Blaxploitation/Shaft-influenced groove of I'm Your Pimp. Check out the bass runs, funky rhythms and fatback drums on all of these cookin' corkers. Herein lies the cornerstone of the album.

The funk slows down to a late-night sound on bass 'n' brass soul of I Turn My Back On Love. My, this album gets better and better. If you're listening to it as you read, I'm sure you'll agree with me. Get a load of that mid song drum break. Trespassing starts with a Diana Ross & The Supremes' Reflections-style intro before some more kickin' funk bursts into action. Sometimes you hear tracks that are so funky it hurts. This is one of them. 

I'm Falling Out Love returns to solid, muscular soul and the similarly powerful Ain't That Lovin' You is also positively Chi-Lites-esque with a 'ba-ba-ba" backing vocals. It is right that the album closes with a funker, however, and the pacy, soundtrack-y organ-powered instrumental Al's Razor Blade does exactly that. One of the seventies' hidden jewels here, of that there is no doubt.

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