Future Funk/Uncut! (1982)
Long-Lost Downtown Funk Artifact
A highly recommended slab of pent-up frantic funk, filtered through a tightly-wound outfit jacked on something. Alfonia Tims & His Flying Tigers were the real deal, but Tims would die of a heart attack three weeks before the release of these debut, 1982 recordings. The descriptively titled Future Funk/Uncut! reeks of a dirty downtown stoned-funk ensemble, sporting bizarre lead solos, abrupt time changes and unpredictable departure/arrival times. A young Melvin Gibbs is in there somewhere, too. For as many decades as I’ve owned the original (now dilapidated) cassette, I’ve never remembered a damn thing Tims was singing about, except that in “Poppa Got Bagged,” his open letter to James Brown, he was thinkin’ ’bout startin‘ his own funk band. The Africanized jazz horn charts and street ranting always rang just manic enough for my tastes. Not to mention the squawking, Zorn-esque sax work, years before the pivotal debut of Naked City. FZ fans might appreciate “Funk Wave.” From the cassette-only label, ROIR, whose catalog boasted The Dolls, The Germs, and the like-minded, James Chance. Not for everybody, but highly recommended. There are some sonic issues with this nearly 30-year-old tape, but when a band’s entire legacy fits on a cassette, it survives the best it can. Another huge thanks to Jitterbug Boy, who scored this ancient tape in a record store and ripped & scanned it for us all… and posterity (he also found & ripped Michael Shrieve’s very rare, In Suspect Terrain for us). Saw a DVD with Alfonia Tims at Amazon. No clue what all that’s about.
A
Poppa Got Bagged (4:03)
Red Sex Dress (5:03)
1984 Where Are You? (5:51)
Funk Wave (8:53)
B
Live Afrika (6:36)
You Only Believe (5:42)
Bustin‘ Miles (5:13)
Alfonia? Alfonia! (5:35)
5 Comments
Get it HERE.
Hey Captain,
I just finished burning, normalizing and cleaning up digital recordings of all the tracks from my original cassette copy of Alfonia’s only release. I bought this cassette new in NYC in the early 80′s and only played it a few times. It sounds pretty great. I am giving copies to a bunch of deejay friends. Thought you’d like to know that it is out there.
Dan
Sure… where?
Hey Y’all,
Alfonso was a close friend of my mothers. I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, rocking out to his cassette.
I just sent out a new tape that I bought from ROIR a couple years ago (still in plastic wrap) to Digital Pickle out of California who just digitized it and sent me some great MP3′s. Let me know if your interested.
Spread the music!
-George Turner
VERY much George. Thanks for the offer. Email me direct from the “contact” link in the upper right text.