Too Funky...Even For Me!
When I popped this Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities CD in my stereo, I thought "I bet this will be weak"..I love all kinds of music and 70's funk ranks up there with Joy Division in my book. WOW! was I surprised,this CD blew my head off! These are some of the tightest arrangements I have ever heard in my life... "Drugs Ain't Cool" is by far the best 2:45 funk instrumental I have heard. This entire CD is great.I can't say anymore,except just buy it!

Neurotic Attempts to be Queens of the Universe
Many eons ago, hard funk troupes roamed the land, supplying supertight musicianship and sinister grooves to underfunkdafied peoples. These are the cats you can totally imagine getting on up while opening local shows for James Brown or playing in seedy clubs with the early Funkadelic. Many record companies and producers are now collecting mega-rare singles by these forgotten funkateers. This particular compilation is not the definitive overview of rare underground funk from the golden age, but it's definitely a worthy sampler that could turn the knowledgeable funk fan into a serious crate-digging collector. It's surely just the tip of the iceberg, but the nasty funk herein offers a bootyshakin' taste of what was once an unheralded but oozing scene.

There are a few glimpses of real ambition and innovation here, particularly from Amnesty and Kashmere Stage Band (if their track "Scorpio" wasn't the theme song to a righteous blaxploitation flick, it should've been). Many of the acts here clearly embody, and sometimes outright imitate, the key influences on the early heavy funk -Lil' Javier & the Fabulous Jades aren't even trying to NOT sound like JB, L.A. Carnival try way too hard to sing like the Temptations, and Leon Mitchison supplies Superfly's twin brother in "Street Scene." But otherwise, like the best of no-nonsense early fongk, most of the tracks here deliver insistent grooves with no messing around. Faves include "The Stretch" by Detroit Sex MacHines and "Slipping into Darkness" by Dayton Sidewinders (in both these cases, the song titles and band names couldn't be more accurate). And there is a real collector's find in the Aristocrats, the members of whom should be tracked down and convinced to deliver that righteous groove once again (but sadly, slammin' foxy singer Linda Blakely is no longer with us). The rare hard funk collected here is surely outrageous, but you'll soon ask yourself how much is still out there and ready for worship. [~doomsdayer520~]

hot stuff
want some heavy funk from other sources other than Issac Hayes, James Brown and all the other big names? Check THIS cd out.

Great raw soul!
We've all heard enough Sly, PFunk, etc. Not that there's anything wrong with that...THEY ROCK. But, it's nice to know that there were so many funky people that didn't get on the Top 40. This CD compilation has a ton of very cool stuff. It's worth owning just for the Supersouls' Loaded To The Gills(though I wish I could hear the whole thing! A few of these tracks are edited, but not in a bad way). Put it on and DANCE.

An explosive missile to the past...
Wow. I just picked this up, yesterday. This s__t is so hip! Collects many obscurites from around the country, all high energy, smokin' funk. You dig funk at all, this collection rules!