In this world of mere mortals, William "Bootsy" Collins is like a psychedelically charged Energizer Bunny. On the road at age 17 plucking out bass lines for James Brown's Revue – which defined funk with standards like the Collins-penned "Sex Machine" – Bootsy wound up in the middle of a three-ring circus called Parliament-Funkadelic, where he probed vast sonic realms with George Clinton and keyboard maestro Bernie Worrell. Although the visionary and influential Mothership finally landed, Bootsy continued into hyperspace, working with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Sly and Robbie, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Deee-Lite. Harvest and Blasters, two lesser-known but equally phenomenal projects,
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are finally available through Rykodisc and its Black Arc funk series, produced by the rhythmystic Bill Laswell.
Zillatron casts Collins as the armorclad Great Overlord of the Cyberfunk, whose bellowing monotone places him somewhere between Darth Vader and Fat Albert. With sidekick/alter ego Fuzz-face and all-star support including Worrell, mutant-guitar virtuoso Buckethead, Umar Bin Hassan of the Last Poets and pioneer rapper Grandmaster Melle Mel, this latest Collins-Laswell collaboration drop-kicks you into oblivion with an arsenal of styles, movie samples, answering-machine messages and playful esoterica. Setting it off with some bumping, power-chord-tinged funk on "C.B.I. Files (Central Bug Intelligence)" and "Fuzz Face," Bootsy and crew effortlessly launch into speedmetal binges ("Exterminate," "Smell the Secrets"), atmospheric trip-hop ("Count Zero," which showcases the best of Bootsy's pulsing space bass) and, of course, pure cotton candy ("The Passion Continues").
But as silly as Lord of the Harvest may seem, Bootsy drops serious science if you read between the grooves. "Exterminate," for example, quotes William Burroughs – "America is not a young land. It is old and dirty and evil. Before the settlers, before the Indians, the evil was there, waiting" – to introduce the recurring theme of the sinister forces that manipulate us. With great attention to detail and a heady dubwise mix, Lord of the Harvest is strictly schizofrenetic with never a dull moment.
Blasters of the Universe, the latest space cake baked at Bootsy's own Cincinnati studio, moves at a similar pace, propelled by sticky polyrhythms that will have even Dr. Dre doing a double take. Throw in a stanky bottom, horns, some female vocalists and the whirling guitar licks that Bootsy perfected with James Brown, and you have original uncut funk for the '90s.
"I'm a brother from way back," Bootsy says in one of the many odd interludes between songs, and in paying tribute to the heyday of P-Funk he brings back many of the original funkateers in his New Rubber Band – including Worrell, Clinton (appearing on the first single) and Maceo Parker and the Horny Horns. We also get a posthumous dose of Eddie "Maggot Brain" Hazel, whos
