Vinyl Masterpiece, a Dutch reissuer of great funk albums, has just reissued two fantastic albums by Kool and The Gang. The first of two is the album 'The Force' from 1977 original pressed on DE-LITE Records (940558).

This and the other reissue album 'Everybody's Dancing' are recorded for the period that Kool and the Gang hit the charts with 'Celebrations', 'Ladies Night', 'Too Hot' and a few years later with 'Cherish' and 'Fresh'.

The tracks on this album are from a different cake than the mentioned previous tracks. Let's start with track #1-2 respectively 'A place in Space' and 'Slick Superchick'. Both have superb heavy Funk bass lines, a lot of brass, synth, Synthesized vocal sounds. Almost no Lyrics, just chants and shouts. You can compare track #3 'just Be True' with the 'Roy Ayers' sound from the seventies. My favorite. Back to the funk with the album title track 'The Force'. Again heavy funk, just like 'Mighty Mighty High'. 'Oasis' is a down-tempo mellow type of song with great female vocals. 'Life's A Song' is also in the style of 'Just Be True'. If you like heavy funk then this album is a killer. Don't make any conclusions when looking at the group name.
Sound samples and CD available at vinyl Masterpiece