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‘Up for the Down Stroke’ was Parliament’s second album, but also the first with a re-vamped line-up that would create the musical vision that would serve George Clinton and his crew for many years to come. What Stravinsky is to composers and Deep Purple is to hard rock is what Parliament is to funk. No one does it like Parliament; the layered polyphonic vocals, the swinging horn lines, the tight guitar rhythms, Bernie Worrell’s dramatic classical keyboard flourishes and the overall bizarre humor, its no wonder Clinton had to coin the term p-funk to separate his band from the others who might fake the funk. One appealing aspect to this album, that also shows it's age, are some nice 60s analog psychedelic tape effects; the kind of effects that used to show up on Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd albums, as well as low-budget horror movies.
This isn’t the best Parliament album available, on later albums Clinton will connect with a science fiction theme that will inspire his band to new heights, but ‘Up for the Down Stroke’ is a must for p-funk fans and anybody who is looking for funk at its very best and most creative.