I’ve been bouncing around the 60s for a while here so by way of a change I’m jumping in the time traveller and jumping forward to 1980 (careful now!).
Browsing at a record fair yesterday proved completely fruitless, except for some reason it left me feeling nostalgic for my DJ days in around ‘79/80. More specifically, it led me to pull out my copy of Mass Production’s “Massterpiece” album. As I say I know not where this compulsion came from, I don’t remember seeing a Mass Production record at the fair; the brain – and memory – moves in mysterious ways.
Mass Production were, essentially, not true to their name. The Norfolk, Virginia group laid down a groove over a number of albums that was for the most part a cut above much of the soul/funk/disco groups output that was around in the late 70s/early 80s. Their sound was an amalgam of soul, funk, jazz, and disco. They released a total of eight albums between 1977 and 1983. Their fifth album “Massterpiece” has always been one that’s stayed in the memory, being full of jams both slow and uptempo. The lyrics may have been, in the main, simplistic, but they laid down some irresistible grooves.
I’m glad I revisited this album. Placing the needle to the grooves I was trying to decide which tracks to share with you. I remembered being fond of “Angel”, “Forever”, and “Nature Lover”. All on side one. Then, of course, there was the monster instrumental “Shante” that opened side two. Perhaps it was because I couldn’t get enough of those tracks back in the day that I ended up overlooking “Your Love”, the penultimate track on side two. But playing the album again over the weekend that was the track that jumped out at me.
Of course, as I’ve mentioned it I have to give you this groove as well:
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