Live

Trouble Funk’s singles are great, particularly “So Early in the Morning” and the immortal “Drop the Bomb,” but they were a life-altering live act, as this disc, originally released as a double LP in a plain white sleeve, proves. Its four side-long tracks provide an hour of nonstop, hardcore go-go funk, the congas and rototoms that adorn the syncopated beat never stopping for a second as bassist/vocalist “Big Tony” Fisher engages the crowd with call-and-response chants, keyboardist Robert “Syke Dyke” Reed unleashes electronic blasts, and the horn section punches in to bring things to one climax after another. “Songs” aren’t the point; the tracks are simply labeled “Part A,” “Part B,” “Part C,” and “Part D,” and the music is a continuous, ever-shifting but also essentially unchanging jam that probably represents 1/2 to 1/3 of a typical night’s work for the group at the time.