On "Can't Stop," he keeps the beat with an angular funk line.
Inspired by Jimi Hendrix's look and sound and Sly Stone's joyful synthesis of a strong funk line with near-ecclesiastical brass, Davis created a hot, contemporary sound of his own.
"Take Wes Chandler for Instance" begins with a funk line whose rhythm cycles begin to break up after a few bars; a drum-machine loop swims in for a bit then retreats; a home recording of the group's saxophonist, Michael Lewis, improvising in lovely Ornette Coleman-style ballad tones, takes over the song for a final, floating 90 seconds.
A group with Tim Berne on saxophones, Craig Taborn on synthesizer and Tom Rainey on drums; they play chopped-off funk lines, gathering momentum into what are very nearly grooves, and extend them into long, highly improvised joyrides.
If you listen close enough, L.A. bassist and producer Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner's robo-funk lines are probably rumbling in somewhere outside your window right now.
By the time Mr. Simon was driving home the finale with "You Can Call Me Al," with its South African funk bass line and rocking horn lines, the people in the hall were on their feet.
Later, "I Know You Know," an original, begins with a stuttering funk bass line that would not sound out of place on a James Brown record.
In a pop-culture environment that's constantly on the lookout for fresh, cool samples, outsider music promises something completely new, unlike yet another 70's funk bass line.
Unfortunately the stabbing, late 60s funk bass line of that hit straitjacketed the group's music for almost two years as they churned out endless sound-alikes, including I Know Who You've Been Socking It To and Black Berries.
An echoing piano note, like raindrops hitting a still pond, opens "Parentheses," but it's soon followed by a trashy, low-fi sampled drumbeat, nagging electronic sounds and a hint of a funk bass line while Mr. Silberman, in an angelic soprano, croons, "Arm in a sling/I don't owe you anything".
The Shepherd's Dog surprised me in a wonderful way with its more expansive instrumentation and band sound, and Kiss Each Other Clean brings more sonic surprises: distorted organs, electronic drum samples and funk bass-lines.
