PARLIAMENT – Up For The Down Stroke

LP – 180g Black Vinyl

Kicking off with one of prime funk’s purest distillations – the outrageously great title track, with a perfect party chorus line and uncredited horns (presumably the Horny Horns were involved somehow) adding to the monster beat and bass – Up for the Down Stroke finds Parliament in rude good health. As was more or less the case through the ’70s, Parliament took a slightly more listener-friendly turn here than they did as Funkadelic, but often it’s a difference by degrees. Just listening to some of Bernie Worrell’s insane keyboard parts or Bootsy Collins’ bass work here is enough to wake the dead. As always, Worrell in particular can suddenly surprise with his delicacy — the soft, understated flow of I Just Got Back may have lyrics that could be sung by Jon Anderson, at least at points, but the piano lines have subtle, dreamy grace, the antithesis of Rick Wakeman’s masturbations. For that matter, Peter Chase’s whistles are downright delightful, goofy, and sweet all at once. Slightly more oddball is All Your Goodies Are Gone, which has a bit more upfront bite and some downright strange lyrics, delivered with a stoned, breathless tone and backed by unearthly choir arrangements.