Hamilton Bohannon - Dance Your Ass Off FLAC album

reference to [Japan LTD CD] CDSOL-5789
I purchased this CD with some trepidation. In 1977 Bohannon described it as dance product recorded to please executives his previous record label Brunswick, but not what he wanted to do. For a contractual obligations LP Dance … is very good. Some critics viewed it as wall to wall mindless up-tempo disco, but there are actually 2 or 3 mid paced tracks.

In a departure from his usual format there is no second side of slower ballad material here. This is mostly a plus, for although Bohannon valued his less frenetic compositions as being more musical, his dance grooves were his real forte. The downside is that some tracks seem a bit too long. For example Zulu sets up some interesting loop patterns but lacks development and should have been half as long.

The first two tracks form a continuous run of high energy dance music. Spread the groove around heralds the arrival of the Bohannon band in locations around the USA, a similar lyrical theme to Disco Stomp. This is a full throttle stomper that cleverly alternates between an initial 4/4 driving rhythm and a 6/8 metre 'break' section to build up the tension. Guitars churn out the underlying riff with a rock feel, over which strings punctuate and play the lead melody theme.

The groove I feel has a nice loping pace, some cooking blues-funk guitar licks and a sax solo. Trying to be slick is the close to Afro-trance with two bass lines, and two guitar lines weaving across each other. A fluid flute solo floats across the rhythm pattern. TomTom Club later referenced Bohannon and this groove bears some relation those later found on Remain in Light bt Talking Heads.

The last LP track Party People reprises the hi energy mood of the first two tracks. The punchline "Forget about the boss, and party at work", seems just the line in humour to appeal to the Japanese (to whom we should be grateful for this reissue).
The bonus 7" version of Dance Your Ass Off is not just edited down from the LP cut. Some amusing party in the studio voices have been added which livens up the mood. The first 90 seconds sounds like a different take that is then spliced together with edits from the LP version.

Overall a strong LP, not matching the peaks of Stop and Go or Keep on Dancing, but far more consistent than Insisdes Out or Bohannon and exploring some interesting new variations on the dance formula.

Every single track on this is an absolute funk-fueled stripped-down disco stomper with no gimmicks, cheese or letdowns. Hamilton Bohannon took the raw funk of James Brown and fused it with the disco beats of the mid-70's philadelphia producers, but left out the embellishments of philly disco and concentrated on straight up dancefloor funk attitude with sparse, audience-prodding vocals. Some samples of these tracks turn up on the excellent Bohannon-centric "Tribute" album by sample-jackers Smith N Hack (http://www.discogs.com/release/35150).