Spirit of the Boogie cover

Spirit of the Boogie

Released

From 1975, Spirit of the Boogie is mostly dense, tight, Kool and the Gang funk tracks, with one soul-jazz excursion, the pretty Winter Sadness, a companion piece to their Summer Madness song from the previous album. The rest of the Spirit… consists of dance floor and disco material, their modus operandi being party-friendly fuzz funk with swinging jazz-horn riffs, catchy simple vocal refrains, chka-chka guitars and super-tight percussion. It being 1975 the band are gradually absorbing influences from the emergent disco sound, with Ancestral Ceremony, Mother Earth and the title track all sitting atop a straight-up 4/4 disco pulse. Another quality funk outing from pre-80s-hits-era Kool & the Gang.

Harold Heath

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