The Whitefield Brothers
In the Raw
(Now-Again)

Germany is rarely thought of as a source of world-class funk. But the Whitefield Brothers prove on In the Raw that Krauts can get down on the one as hard and nasty as any American.

Originally released by the Soul Fire label in 2001, In the Raw sounds like it was cut south of the Mason-Dixon Line circa 1970. Clearly, Jay and Muggy Whitefield (aka Jan and Max Weissenfeldt) have assimilated the tropes, tics, and chops of history's preeminent funk-meisters, and their spin on them thoroughly satisfies all requirements from this genre's notoriously picky specialists. (These bros also bring the true funk and Afrobeat in the Poets of Rhythm and Karl Hector & the Malcouns.)

With help from 10 other musicians, including Dap-King Gabriel Roth on bass and Leon Michels of the El Michels Affair arranging horns and playing sax and flute, the Whitefield Brothers deliver 12 slabs of flammable, fat-free funk. "Rampage" features frantically clonking cowbells, luxurious Hammond B-3 organ groans and stabs, a bass line that makes you do that chicken-head bob and strut, and those deathless boom-boom-bap beats. "In the Raw" is aptly hypersexual, with ramrodding bumps and organ riffs thrusting pelvisward with single-minded obsessiveness. Vocals are superfluous when shit like this is cooking properly, and the brothers Whitefield never put a bland ingredient in their spicy stew.

At their best, the Whitefield Brothers recall the Meters' early LPs, in which rhythms were so tightly wound and disciplined, they made the mathematical thought that went into them outrageously sexy. Overall, In the Raw is so elemental, it seems as if it's been there from funk's birth, Germanically shadowing its growth from James Brown onward. It's dance/party/sex music that will never not do the job. recommended