Being sampled by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest on "Show Business" from the group’s 1991 album The Low End Theory should probably cement any group’s importance. And really, the fact that the Fatback Band wasn’t still in the charts or performing regularly during the ‘90s is kinda surprising. Releasing music during the better part of both the ‘70s and ‘80s, the ensemble – comprised of Bill Curtis as the group’s drummer, guitarist Johnny King, bassist Johnny Flippin, trumpet player George Williams, saxophonist Earl Shelton, flautist George Adams, and keyboardist Gerry Thomas – enjoyed various spurts of success. Its music changed over the years, but that beat remained roughly the same in conception if not in practice.

During the time that the Fatback Band was most active, dance music was undergoing some pretty tremendous changes. And while some might decry referring to the band in strictly dance terms, the fact that the Fatback Band worked in funk, soul, RnB and eventually disco doesn’t leave any real choice. That being said, most of the group’s recorded work is able to skirt the lesser tenets of those aforementioned genres. Unquestionably, there are pratfalls to watch out for, but any disc from the group is going to give listeners a substantial dose of funk.

By the time that the Fatback Band released its fourth album in 1974, its first few efforts had been well enough received as to make anyone concerned guess at this new disc’s – Keep on Steppin’ – success. And for the most part, the long player is swollen full of gritty funk stuffs: enough for any Friday night dance party to be sure. Despite that fact, Keep on Steppin’ didn’t impact the charts in the way its predecessors did. In the end that doesn’t matter at all, but for a disc so even keeled and well construed, it’s surprising.

While the majority of work here – “Stuff”  and the album’s lead off track “Mister Bass Man” – sounds as if it was produced by Mr. James Brown while he was adding some arrangement flourishes, there are a few let downs. A ballad crops up every now and again – “Love” and “Can’t Stop the Flame” – that only serves to distract listeners from the round funk found elsewhere. But seeing as the mid-‘70s was when disco stuff was being ushered in under the guise of funk, the Fatback Band does its part – unfortunately.

Both “Feeling” and “Wicky Wacky” – the song that Tribe made use of – sport some of that disconcerting disco back beat. It’s not fully formed at this point seeing as Keep on Steppin’ was released relatively early in ‘70s, but the seeds are there in all its nonsensical, coked up glory. Neither track is plainly offensive and the disco styled drumming even subsides momentarily during each effort.

For the final disc in the Fatback Band’s early, triumphant stage, Keep on Steppin’ won’t be a let down to connoisseurs. At the same time, though, the disc is also a gateway to the group’s latter stages – and those aren’t all made up of tasty funk tracks.