innerspaceboy

Nigerian afro-funk is entirely new to me, and I dug what I heard from the first note onward.

The percussion and rhythm have a noticeably looser feel than the tight hot-on-the-one funk I’m used to from the Meters, the JBs, and others, but the coolly laid-back psychedelia works fantastically well on this record. It is chilled out and in no hurry, which is a quality I really enjoy in ambient dub music, so I was pleased to find it working so effectively here as well.

There’s a similarly loose and relaxed quality in both the vocals and in the production style. There’s no rock star pretension here, and it’s a credit to the band’s authenticity. This debut was released in 1973 and predates the loudness war by decades. That’s quite a relief because the casual nature of the vocalist and the natural-sounding production alike make the record measurably more accessible and "real" than something tainted by flashy showmanship or overproduction.

Try and Love is a wonderfully satisfying album for either active or passive listening. The uptempo and downtempo numbers flow fluidly into one another and it’s an impressively cohesive album. It’s a great weekend spin and bears an honesty that is sorely lacking in many contemporary recordings.

It’s records like these that really make The Album Club worthwhile for me. I wouldn't have likely stumbled upon this cut on my own. Cheers!

8/10

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