Various Artists
Movements 2
(Perfect Toy Records, 200?)
About a year and a half ago, a compilation appeared. The cover was all in browns and there was a picture of a man and a woman on the cover. It was Movements. Tobias Kirmayer, and the vast amount of singles that he has collected, compiled an album filled with unknown funk gems. Now, Movements 2 has arrived. More funk than one would even care to shake a stick at. Like its predecessor, the second installment really has no clunkers; everything can be looked upon in a decent light at the very least. There are a few forays into the period of funk that became a bit to mired in ‘70s production, but the tracks by Gene Boyd and Ray Anthony are easily made up for. “When Love Comes Home” features a well-rehearsed band with a rhythmically pleasing guitar line as the horn section groans out the melody. With the guitar line, there is enough empty space for each player to contribute in his own rhythmic fashion. Good choruses aren’t lacking on this release either with “Don’t Chain My Soul” checking in as a shoulda been hit. Albums like this one are cropping up with increased frequency. The Michigan compilations come to mind as well as any reissue work Stones Throw produces. Those are damned fine albums, but not as dusty and consistent as this mix from Europe.

Various Artists
Party Keller Vol. 2
(Compost Records, 2006)
My guess is that Florian Keller enjoys putting together comps as much as creating his own music. The Movements compilations are so good and cohesive that their consistency tells the listener how much the compiler loves the vinyl singles each track was drawn from. Based upon experiences with those compilations, Party Keller Vol. 2 has some large grooves to fill. The material that makes up this album has been collected in much the same manner as Movements. The question, though, is then why were these tracks not included on a different comp? Unfortunately, the answer is that these tracks are not as consistently high in quality as the others. The album begins with a lone reggae track, Charmaine Burnette’s “Same Girl.” The groove is there, but the lead guitar sounds a bit dated, which is probably part of the reason that this was not ever a hit in the Jamdown. Instrumental funk gems are represented here by the Baker Brothers as well as Pnu Riff, which sounds a bit afro-beat influenced at the beginning of the track, but somewhere along the way looses its loping quality. For some reason or another, Keller placed the tracks the sound most dated and disco influenced at the end of the album, making the album fall totally flat by the end of the listen. The tracks on here that are good could be played in rotation with Funkadelic or even the Coffy soundtrack. The inclusion of tracks, though, that should have been forgotten lead me to wonder what the next Movements has in store.