PARLIAMENT — Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome (review)

PARLIAMENT — Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome album cover Album · 1977 · Funk Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Warthur
Another Parliament album in which, like The Clones of Dr Funkenstein, George Clinton's heavy-handed strategy for telling the story of his concept albums and expanding on the band's mythology obscures the decent musical backing provided by the group. On tracks such as Sir Nose D'Voidoffunk and others a swinging backing track is talked all over by band members using various distorted and manipulated voices expounding on the P-Funk cosmology to an extent where at points it feels to me like I'm attending a lecture on Funkology.

The overall anti-disco message seems kind of crass too - it's a little too neat that the evil and corruptive propaganda force created by capitalism to dumb down the music business just so happens to be a music genre which was competing very successfully against George and company at the same time; the idea that the funk business wasn't in any shape or form as capitalistic or profit-motivated as disco was at the time seems mildly absurd. Still, absurdity is precisely what you come to Parliament-Funkadelic for.

On balance, this is another album with meaty bass, swinging horn sections, and the standard George Clinton sense of humour. It's just that at this point that sense of humour begins to grate a little.

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