Having already established themselves as a force to be reckoned with on the live circuit — not to mention dropping some very fine albums, like 2009's Parkdale Funk 1: the Pillage of Bloor West Village and 2010's Good Life — Toronto's KC Roberts & The Live Revolution have reached a new plateau and dropped an incredibly ambitious offering in Parkdale Funk 2: Sides. On the two-disc set, which features 40 guests over 27 tracks and a total runtime of over 2 hours, Parkdale Funk 2 goes for broke. The octet's infectious, rhythmically virtuosic brand of funk is present, but all the more impressive are their seamless detours into hip-hop, rock, drum & bass, reggae, Afro-beat and folk — which didn't exactly gel on previous outings — not to mention embellishments like strings (on the Philly disco-flavoured "Drift Away") and a big band (the pulsating 10-minute-plus Blaxploitation homage of "The Battle for the Presidency," which would have made Isaac Hayes proud). While they overreach at times (the socially conscious "Humanity" aims for Curtis Mayfield territory but comes off as a bit naïve), Parkdale Funk 2 is KC Roberts & The Live Revolutions' finest offering to date.
Read an interview with KC Roberts here.
(KC Roberts & The Live Revolution)Read an interview with KC Roberts here.
