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THE DIPLOMATS OF SOLID SOUND – What Goes Around Comes Around – 2010 – Album review

[rating: 4]
HIGHLIGHTS: B.O.O.G.A.L.O.O. – Back Off – Gimme One More Chance – Can’t Wait For Your Love (Pistol Allen)
SOUNDBITE: “B double O, G, A, L double O!”

Diplomats Of Solid Sound – comin’ at ya straight from the Corn Belt! Yeah that’s right, you know it – it’s not just Bill Bryson, Slipknot and – er – cereal that come from Iowa you know. And D.O.S.S. aren’t going to bore you with endless travelling anecdotes or sniff a bottled foetus and puke through a weird mask either. No, they’ll be throwing down that good old funky soul.

Arguably their strongest offering yet, What Goes Around Comes Around continues the largely vocal-track precedent set by previous LP Plenty Nasty. The band throw down a mix of Hammond and horn-rich grooves, harvesting (see what I did there?) ideas from a range of influences giving rise to an early Booker T sound (on Fascination), northern soul on ‘ought-to-be next single’ Can’t Wait For Your Love (Pistol Allen) and the slightly psychedelic/ sitar funk of Get Back. All that and they also manage to invent ‘hayseed-soul.’ No really – check the violins on Gimme One More Chance. Also of note are tracks one and two which form either side of the forthcoming debut 45 off the LP. B.O.O.G.A.L.O.O. is the four-to-the-floor Hammond stomper with a clap/ sing-along vocal hook while Back Off is a more straightforward, if edgier, slice of guitar and sax-based business. Oh yeah, the saxophone. Never my favourite instrument when it comes to funk (with a few exceptions) but definitely a cornerstone of the Diplomats’ sound, it has to be said that I found the sax less offensive on this LP than on its predecessor. Or maybe I’m just getting mellower with age.

Props have to be due for changing it up with the influences and largely avoiding the creeping jazziness that some who masquerade as proper funky soul sneak in to inform their sound. The Diplomats Of Solid Sound then…sounding more solid than ever.
(Out October 2010 on Record Kicks)
Listen to The Diplomats Of Solid Sound – What Goes Around Comes Around
The Diplomats Of Solid Sound – Myspace

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