Though it found little commercial traction upon release, Funkadelic‘s George Clinton-produced debut LP Funkadelic would eventually come to be recognized as a foundational work in a broader movement in music that embraced complexity, cosmic vision, and sonic experimentation. Its DNA runs through the work of Prince, Bad Brains, Erykah Badu, Outkast, and countless others. Drawing from psychedelic rock, gospel, blues, and rhythm & blues, the legendary group crafted a new, heavy form of Black expression that resisted categorization or containment. While Motown continued to aim for crossover success with smooth, choreographed soul, Funkadelic embraced distortion, improvisation, and spiritual ambiguity. The musicians at the core of Funkadelic — guitarist Eddie Hazel, bassist Billy Bass Nelson, drummer Tiki Fulwood, guitarist Tawl Ross, and keyboardist Mickey Atkins — were young, hungry, and unconcerned with boundaries. They channeled the blues-drenched, acid-soaked energy of late-’60s rock and gave it a distinctly Black identity. Its tracks deliver relentless, hypnotic grooves that manage to sound both joyful and subversive. Released in 1970, Funkadelic’s self-titled debut emerged at a volatile crossroads in American history as optimism of the 1960s had begun to unravel into disillusionment, unrest, and cultural fragmentation. Against this backdrop, the album arrived not as a polished product of the soul tradition, but as a loud, gritty, and unsettling transmission from a parallel universe.
For the album’s new reissue, available now from original label Westbound Records in conjunction with ORG Music, mastering engineer Dave Gardner and tape restoration specialist Catherine Vericolli spent time at 54 Sound Studios in Ferndale, Michigan archiving and restoring the original master tapes with in-house engineer Nick King. “It’s very rare for an archivist and a re-mastering engineer to be in the same room with the source material on a project,” says Vericolli. “To investigate, troubleshoot and make decisions as a team to best serve the releases. The approach is unorthodox, but the more we dug in, the more we realized that the magic of this undertaking wasn’t just in the tapes, or the incredible history that surrounded us in the studio—it was in the process. It was in the collaboration and trust.” The album joins a celebrated reissue series from Westbound and ORG that has already featured albums from the Ohio Players, Dennis Coffey, Denise LaSalle, Assemblage, The Counts, and Eramus Hall, in addition to two compilation albums for Record Store Day.
Recommended Tracks: Track 2, “I Bet,” Track 6, “Qualify & Satisfy,” Track 7, “What Is Soul”
FCC Clean
Label: Westbound Records / ORG Music
