Mod-funk outfit Big Boss Man have certainly discovered a new lease of life since switching labels from Blow Up to Spinout Nuggets for new long player Join The Jet Set is their second for the latter in just two years whilst also being their sixth overall since 2001. So that’s four LPs for the first twenty three years of the band’s career followed by two in the two most recent years. Blimey – jet set well and truly joined! The creativity seems to have had a boost too. Never ones to confine themselves to a single narrow generic strictures when they can encompass funk, soul, boogaloo, psychedelia, 60s R&B, Latin and (on preceding LP Bossin’ Around) early reggae, this one finds them ranging across arguably their broadest array of styles yet.
Opener Don’t Take My Baby Away morphs from a clattery Roy Budd-style jazz-funk intro into a main course of female-led blue-eyed soul stomper. It’s the first of three cuts to feature Charlotte Benson on lead vocals and if it’s also coincidentally the monkey’s least favourite cut on the album, bear with – for Benson also appears on one of the monkey’s favourites too. Next cut Turtle Neck is a blisteringly fast mod-rock-cum-R&B workout while the title track which follows it showcases bandleader Nasser Bouzida’s newfound skills with the harmonica inviting favourable Stones/ Small Faces/ Spencer Davis Group comparisons. Benson’s second appearance is on One Last Kiss – a yearning uptempo heater that is most definitely among the LP highlights, as is her third appearance on the rhythmically funkier wistfulness of If I Had The Chance To Do It All Again. The snarling rock guitars that, together with bongos open The Rum Runners are somewhat misleading as this one veers promiscuously from psych to soul-jazzy Rhodes-tinkling and subsequently Hammond jazz-funk grooving and back again. Serveta Soul meanwhile opens like a mod take on I Know You Got Soul nods to the band’s own classic Sea Groove and then heads in a NOLA-jazz direction with loads of horns in what is apparently a titular nod to Spanish-built Lambrettas. The subsequent Rockhaus UK is another LP highlight. Like The Rum Runners earlier it too opens with snarling guitar but what unfolds after this is quite different – a just-over-five-minute funky epic with gloriously psychedelic Spaghetti Western and Giallo movie theme influences.
Of the final trio of cuts, the first is the ‘Bongo Version’ of Lambretta Boogaloo – originally written for the 34th Euro Lambretta Jamboree that went down so well the band decided to press a limited vinyl 7″. Not to mention also decided to a different (and better) version for the album! Then it’s the turn of what is possibly the band’s first official cover. It’s an instrumental that goes in deep with the moody late night vibes as the band take on The Doors’ Light My Fire – or, as I like to think of it – ‘the return of The Hawk’ since it features BBM’s original bassist. Finally the album tops out with the afro-funky psych-out of The Witch Doctor. Join The Jet Set then , clear evidence that if you haven’t changed labels in a few years, maybe you should think about it!
(Out now on Spinout Nuggets)