GLOBAL GROOVE
Specialists in dance music and vinyl, over 60,000 in stock shipping worldwide daily.
Open for mail order transactions as normal.
PARLIAMENT - OSMIUM
ARTIST:
TITLE:
Osmium
LABEL:
CATNO:
DEMREC342
STYLE:
Rock /
FORMAT:
Vinyl record
DESCRIPTION:
Classic Funk & Soul LP from 1970 Re-issued.
The first Parliament album as such was a mixed-up mess of an affair -- but would anyone expect anything less? The overall sound is much more Funkadelic than later Parliament, if with a somewhat more accessible feel. Things get going with an appropriately leering start, thanks to "I Call My Baby Pussycat," which makes something like "What's New, Pussycat?" seem like innocent, chaste conversation. After a stripped-down start, things explode into a full-on funk strut with heavy-duty guitar and slamming drums setting the way, while the singers sound like they're tripping without losing the soul -- sudden music dropouts, vocal cut-ins, volume level tweaks, and more add to the off-kilter feeling. Osmium's sound progresses from there -- it's funk's fire combined with a studio freedom that feels like a blueprint for the future. Bernie Worrell's keyboard abilities are already clear, whether he's trying for hotel lounge jams or full freakiness; similarly, Eddie Hazel is clearly finding his own epic stoned zone to peel out some amazing solos at the drop of a hat. As for the subject matter and end results -- who else but this crew could have come up with the trash-talking, yodeling twang of "Little Ole Country Boy" in 1970 and still made it funky with all the steel guitar? Other fun times include the piano and vocal-into-full-band goofy romantic romp of "My Automobile" and "Funky Woman," where over a heavy groove (and goofy Worrell break) the titular character lives with the consequence of her stank: "She hung them in the air/The air said this ain't fair!" Amidst all the nuttiness, there are some perhaps surprising depths -- consider "Oh Lord, Why Lord/Prayer," which might almost be too pretty for its own good (Worrell's harpsichord almost verges on the sickly sweet) but still has some lovely gospel choir singing and heartfelt lyrics.
The first Parliament album as such was a mixed-up mess of an affair -- but would anyone expect anything less? The overall sound is much more Funkadelic than later Parliament, if with a somewhat more accessible feel. Things get going with an appropriately leering start, thanks to "I Call My Baby Pussycat," which makes something like "What's New, Pussycat?" seem like innocent, chaste conversation. After a stripped-down start, things explode into a full-on funk strut with heavy-duty guitar and slamming drums setting the way, while the singers sound like they're tripping without losing the soul -- sudden music dropouts, vocal cut-ins, volume level tweaks, and more add to the off-kilter feeling. Osmium's sound progresses from there -- it's funk's fire combined with a studio freedom that feels like a blueprint for the future. Bernie Worrell's keyboard abilities are already clear, whether he's trying for hotel lounge jams or full freakiness; similarly, Eddie Hazel is clearly finding his own epic stoned zone to peel out some amazing solos at the drop of a hat. As for the subject matter and end results -- who else but this crew could have come up with the trash-talking, yodeling twang of "Little Ole Country Boy" in 1970 and still made it funky with all the steel guitar? Other fun times include the piano and vocal-into-full-band goofy romantic romp of "My Automobile" and "Funky Woman," where over a heavy groove (and goofy Worrell break) the titular character lives with the consequence of her stank: "She hung them in the air/The air said this ain't fair!" Amidst all the nuttiness, there are some perhaps surprising depths -- consider "Oh Lord, Why Lord/Prayer," which might almost be too pretty for its own good (Worrell's harpsichord almost verges on the sickly sweet) but still has some lovely gospel choir singing and heartfelt lyrics.
PRICE:
£22.99
RELEASED YEAR:
SLEEVE:
New
MEDIA:
New
BUY:
LISTEN:
Last FM Information on Parliament
Please note the information is done on a artist keyword match and data is provided by LastFM.
Parliament is an American funk band formed in the late 1960s by George Clinton as part of his Parliament-Funkadelic collective. Less rock-oriented than its sister act Funkadelic, Parliament drew on science-fiction and outlandish performances in their work. The band scored a number of Top 10 hits, including the million-selling 1976 single "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)", and Top 40 albums such as Mothership Connection (1975). Clinton dissolved the band in the early 1980s. Reformed in January 2018, the first new Parliament release in 38 years was "I'm Gon Make U Sick O'Me", which features the rapper Scarface. A new Parliament album, Medicaid Fraud Dogg, was released in May 2018.
Parliament was originally The Parliaments, a doo-wop group based out of George Clinton's Plainfield, New Jersey barber shop. The name was soon abandoned due to legal issues with Revilot and Atlantic Records, and most of the same people recorded under the name Funkadelic, which consisted of The Parliaments' backing musicians. Billy "Bass" Nelson is credited with creating the name Funkadelic. He also switched from 6-string guitar to bass, creating room for his childhood friend Eddie Hazel to join the group. Soon, Parliament was created in addition to Funkadelic and the two bands consisted of essentially the same people, though both released albums under their respective names.
The legal problems with the name "The Parliaments" were resolved in 1970, and Clinton signed all of Funkadelic to Invictus Records under the name Parliament, releasing Osmium ("The Breakdown" reached #30 on the R&B charts in 1971) but the name Parliament was then abandoned for some time, as Funkadelic was much more successful.
In the early 1970s, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and Catfish Collins joined Funkadelic, which released five albums by 1974. With only moderate success, Funkadelic signed with Casablanca Records as Parliament, releasing "Up for the Down Stroke" (off the album of the same name) which reached #10 on the R&B charts but peaked at #63 Pop. The song was the biggest hit of P Funk's career. 1975 saw the release of Chocolate City, which also enjoyed moderate success; the title track reached #24.
With the ensuing albums, Parliament became one of the most respected bands on the 1970s, and are now recognized as one of the forefathers of funk music. Of particular interest are the spacey themes of Starchild, Sir Nose and other recurring characters from multiple albums.
Of particular note is the landmark album Mothership Connection, an amalgam of many '70s themes and the tight "popular" funk sound which was both more commercially viable (particularly in the black community) and more readily emulated by the numerous artists capitalizing on the popularity of funk's mainstream cousin: disco. Artists such as the BeeGees, the Commodores and Kool and the Gang repackaged many of Parliament's innovations into radio-ready pop hits and upon the mass acceptance of disco culture as portrayed in Saturday Night Fever, millions of suburban Americans were able to boogie-oogie-oogie safely protected from exposure to the urban dance scene's multi-ethnic, sexually diverse and cocaine-fueled celebration.
In the early 1980s, with legal difficulties arising from the multiple names used by multiple groups, as well as a shakeup at Casablanca Records, George Clinton dissolved Parliament and Funkadelic as recording and touring entities. Parliament/Funkadelic morphed into P-Funk. New audiences were fueled in the '90s due to extensive sampling by hip hop DJs and producers, including beats used in The Chronic and Cypress Hill's debut album.
A variety of bands evolved in their own right out of the main two bands - they included Bootsy's Rubber Band, The Brides of Funkenstein, Parlet, Mutiny, The Horny Horns, and Quazar.
George Clinton subsequently worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Reformed in January 2018, the first new Parliament release in 38 years was "I'm Gon Make U Sick O'Me", which features the rapper Scarface. A new Parliament album, Medicaid Fraud Dogg, was released in May 2018. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.