Kool and the Gang ‎– S/T [PURPLE Vinyl. Funk 1969] - LP

While this New Jersey outfit would hit it huge a decade after this album, they'd been a band since 1964, and this instrumental LP from 1969 or 1970 (probably recorded in the former, released in the latter) shows this horn-driven funk band in action, hitting it with both power and soul.  This clearly take cues from Sly and the Family Stone.

The 1970 debut album from Kool and the Gang scored a couple of hits with 'The Gangs Back Again' and the title cut, but more importantly, it heralded the arrival of what was to become a juggernaut on the R&B scene. This all-instrumental record is years away from the commercial successes of 'Jungle Boogie' and 'Celebration,' and a few light years away stylistically, too. But that unique mixture of jazz, funk, and R&B punctuated by those tremendous horn arrangements (and some great drum breaks) that characterizes Kool and the Gang at its best is here in full force. It's a funk classic.

Side One

1. Kool & the Gang
2. Breeze & Soul
3. Chocolate Buttermilk
4. Sea of Tranquility

Side Two

1. Give It Up
2. Since I Lost My Baby
3. Kools Back Again
4. The Gangs Back Again
5. Raw Hamburger