Enough, this has been enough of not updating this blog! Good music needs to be cherished, and my craft must be exercised on the daily level. Let's do this shit.
I've been bumping HARD the arranger, drummer, and percussionist Alexander Hamilton's first full release, Stop & Go, put out by Dakar/Brunswick in 1973. Before this release Hamilton worked on tour for Stevie Wonder, holding down the percussion section, and then worked in Motown recording studios for a few years. This album is pure and simple hard pulling, rhythmic funk that hits you over the head and electric kicks your aorta. The eight songs each hold on their own, weaved together intricately with the driving bass lines and thumping wa wa guitars that you might hear sampled by Dilla or even Large Professor.
The spirit of the album originates in a sense of the daily grind (the first track "Stop & Go"), penetrating that hustle with astounding resonance. Hamilton takes us to the grit of the streets in "The Pimp Walk" but raises the blaxploitation theme to an apotheosis of drum licked bluesy soul. And then shit gets flipped up. "Run it on Down Mr. DJ" is a bombastic proto-disco track that anticipates Bohannon's signature style captivating the club music of the late 70's and forever changing the game.
But nothing in his repertoire compares to the breadth of spirit that endlessly floods Stop & Go. Just after the boogie friendly joint, we get pushed into a crunching, funkified gospel number that sweats with a call to "Save their Souls." It's not enough. Hamilton grounds himself from the celestial realm into an earthly jazz croon to the mothers of this land in "Singing a Song for my Mother." And how else to end such a powerful sonic reflection on the struggles, styles, and joys of life than a push towards "Happiness" that makes you realize that you're not so jaded after all. A drum clap bass line holds down this anthem, and just wait for the booming vocals chant "happiness, everywhere / talkin' 'bout happiness everywhere" to baloon this song into the heavens of the funk.
Stop & Go
01. The Stop and Go
02. Getting to the Other Side
03. The Pimp Walk
04. Run it on Down Mr. DJ
05. Save Their Souls
06. Singing a Song for my Mother
07. It's Time For Peace
08. Happiness
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