Welcome to the World of Riot

Funk rock from producer duo Nick Zesses and Dino Fekaris who wrote the entire Welcome to the… album for Motown in 1974. Side one is raw, Latin-tinged funk rock with plenty of distorted guitar chords and searing solos and with most of the tracks revelling in conga and wah wah funk touches. Although it clearly owes a debt to Norman Whitfield’s psychedelic soul Motown productions, Welcome to the… really doesn’t sound like a Motown album at all and is instead something of an oddity in their catalogue, a pleasing mix of raw edgy, psychedelic funk-rock and more middle-of-the-road but perfectly listenable pop/soul on side two.