LARRY YOUNG'S FUEL

Of the three strange solo albums that Larry Young put out in the 70s, Fuel is probably the least successful. It's not a terrible album, but not great either. There are two cuts that feature Larry's always unique take on instrumental progressive rock, one cut that is an outstanding minimalist polyrhythmic electro-funk pressure cooker and four funk/jazz numbers that feature vocalist Laura Logan. It's the four vocal numbers that drag the album down. Laura is a good vocalist in a nasal NYC jazz style sort of way, but when you combine that style of singing with the band's hyper jazz/funk grooves, the result makes the band sound like a happy hour combo in 1970s Harlem or Manhattan. These songs aren't particularly bad, I just expect better from Larry Young. The final cut on the album finally pushes things too far when Larry adds his 'vocals' that sound like a cross between Count Chocula and Fred Schneider of the B-52s. His bizarre urban beatnik lyrics are funny the first time you hear them, but don't hold up to repeat listens at all.

As usual with Young during this period, the prog-rock numbers, as well as almost the whole rest of the album, feature very raw and upfront unfiltered analog synthesizers. Larry was very unique in this respect in that his synthesizers still sounded like 60s synth novelty records well into the 70s. I could see this album as an acid jazz DJ's dream mystery disc with it's wealth of bizarre instrumentals and weird obscure hyper funk. I like this album, but I like almost anything by Larry Young. His personal and almost naïve take on any genre is always refreshing and curiously fascinating even when the results are uneven as they are on this album.

Ever the champion of his local Newark musicians, Larry forges another album with his signature adventuring on experimental sounds through keyboard synthesizers.

1. "Fuel for the Fire" (6:07) hearing this song for the first time lends itself to a theory that Larry and his collaborators had encountered the musical talents of both Urszula Dudziak (through the music of husband Michal Urbaniak's NYC- based band) and Leon Thomas (through Pharoah Sanders). I like and appreciate Linda's wordless work but she's really doing nothing very extraordinary much less innovative. Also, some really nice foundational play from the Fuel lineup feels a bit wasted on the video game synthesizer that Larry seems fixated upon (which later gets turned into some nice Fender Rhodes play). This just feels like a rather boring trip down the New Jersey Turnpike. (8.75/10) 2. "I Ching (Book of Changes)" (6:25) sounds a bit like music to a 1990s video game that was created by fusing melodies from Oriental and Classical music into cartoon-like urban funk themes. The music is at times frivolous and even laughable--like a Charlie Chan movie or an episode from Bill Cosby and The Cosby Kids--but at the same time offering some rather remarkable, high-quality fusion as well as some very high quality musicianship. (8.875/10)

3. "Turn off the Lights" (7:03) Linda Logan is back to lead us through a late night sex dungeon. Her sultry, ultra- suggestive vocal rides along a funk rhythm motif within which Larry explores keyboard sounds with an adventurousness that rivals George Clinton or Joe Zawinul (or Billy Preston). Focusing on the music there is a lot of fun sound and play coming from Larry's fingers--and Linda's vocal performance is strong and refined--quite worthy as an urban singer representing the Betty Davis School of Feminist Funk. (13.375/15)

4. "Floating" (4:12) another instrumental with a street-cruisin' funk motif that seems founded in both classical music traditions as well as the latest urban trends. I'm also once again reminded of the Black Exploitation soundtracks and early video game soundtracks as Larry's lead synthesizer sounds ready to settle into an Atari game of Pong or Space Computer. Not enough adventure and variety to warrant this as a representative of a highly creative, but that might be explained by its compositional credit going to Fuel's young guitarist, Santiago Torano. (8.6667/10)

5. "H + J = B (Hustle + Jam = Bread)" (6:17) more great urban funk from Fernando, Rob, and Santiago. This organ-based funk song sounds like a vehicle for Fuel's percussionists over which Larry continued to explore (rather mindlessly) the variety of synthetic sounds available to him on his array of synthesizers. (8.75/10)

6. "People Do Be Funny" (3:42) the third and final song with vocalist Linda Logan once again features Larry noodling around beneath Linda's urban funk vocal as if he's oblivious to the rest of the crew and the potential for more. (8.667/10)

7. "New York Electric Street Music" (8:33) more nice foundational funk music (with some nice work from drummer Santiago Torano) which feels underdeveloped and, therefore, rather wasted as its only reason for existence is to serve as a cushion and propellant Larry's rather silly vocal and keyboard work. There is some rather cool incendiary lead guitar work peppered here and there within the music (the seventh minute, in particular). (17.5/20)

Total Time 41:39

It is unfortunate that so much great funk music feels rather wasted by Larry's rather singular and selfish preoccupation with the monofocus of playing George Clinton-like synth lines over and between the rhythm section and the vocals. This results in a collection of songs that feel tremendously under-developed; this could have been so much more!

C+/three stars; a collection of well-founded funk that sadly seems grossly one-dimensional and quite underdeveloped.