Ready for take-off from Soul Clap Records mission control is a very unique release beaming directly from the mothership itself.
On our recent journey flying alongside George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, we’ve had the distinct privilege of meeting some of the many insiders who oil the multi-faceted funk machine. An incredible example is Chuck “Da Fonk” Fishman, who along Clinton’s nephew Sa´D “The Hourchild” Ali have became our liaisons to Dr. Funkenstein himself! It is no surprise that these gentlemen have explored their own musical directions outside of P-Funk and it is with great honor that we present FSQ!
FSQ is a production team led by Chuck “Da Fonk” Fishman featuring contributions from Sa´D “The Hourchild” Ali, G Koop (part of George Clinton’s production team), Chas Bronz (Bostonian and friend of Soul Clap Records) and One Era. The name is an acronym for “Funk Style Quality” – three elements that make up the core ethos of FSQ´s sound. Just as FSQ derives from deep musical history, so does their latest record ‘Zulu Congo Call’.
In Fishman´s words: “In about 2005, [we] started working a lot with members of the free jazz movement, John Coltrane acolytes and the like. We were introduced to saxophonist / flautist Prince Lasha who was living in Oakland via Philadelphia based saxophonist / flautist Byard Lancaster who previously joined [us] on several releases. Both legends have since passed on, which emphasizes our passion to try and record with members of the greatest generations of musicians. I was happy with what myself and G Koop did with Prince Lasha, reinventing his 1962 song with Sonny Simmons, “Congo Call” from a straight ahead jazz number to a disco funk song, ‘Zulu Congo Call’ but the song never saw a proper release.”
This EP features a reworked original by Chas Bronz plus remixes from One Era, AbJo (from the Soulection crew) and Mr CV, all curated by Chuck “Da Fonk” Fishman. Lastly as a musical bonus we´ve included FSQ´s superb remix of Nick Monaco’s ‘Naked Is My Nature’, which takes a total bath in Northern Soul and throwback psychedelic feeling!
