Dâm-Funk
Invite the Light
Reviewed by: Max Miller
Fans of Dâm-Funk might not be surprised to learn that Invite the Light, funk guru Damon Riddick’s highly-anticipated follow-up to 2009’s Toeachizown, is as long as a feature-length film. Riddick is known for amassing a glut of material, tweaking it until every last bass groove and synth squelch is impregnable, and finally releasing it to the public all at once, giving his releases a meteoric impact. Though it’s not as if Riddick has just been sitting on material since 2009; in the intervening years, he’s released several EPs, collaborated with Ariel Pink and Snoop Dogg (both of whom return the favor on Invite the Light) and put out Adolescent Funk, a compilation of tracks he made between 1988 and 1992.
That latter record gives a key insight into the story of Dâm-Funk. Riddick was a prolific G-funk bedroom producer back in the heyday of electronic funk music who never made the spotlight. It wasn’t until the late ‘00s, when the availability of music on the Internet helped young dance and electronica fans rediscover electro-funk, G-funk and the like, that Riddick and Stones Throw Records head Peanut Butter Wolf realized that there might be a renewed interest in the sort of groovy jams Riddick had never really stopped producing.
This explains why Dâm-Funk’s music still has so much impact; Riddick didn’t jump on a trend for money or prestige. He sincerely loves funk the way a master craftsman loves a good piece of furniture. After a short post-apocalyptic message from the Ohio Players’ Junie Morrison, pleading for listeners to invite funk back into their lives, Invite the Light kicks off firing on all cylinders with “We Continue,” featuring the wet Moog-like bass, shimmering pads and beatific R&B vocals that herald a quality piece of Dâm-Funk carpentry.
The dystopian undertones implied in Morrison’s introductory message are further explored on the Q-Tip-featuring “I’m Just Tryna Survive (In the Big City)” and “Surveillance Escape,” a goofy synthwave/outrun-style track featuring narration from a flight commander instructing one “Agent 666” to capture Riddick so that his funk sound cannot destroy the music industry as we know it. (Never fear, though; Riddick is saved by a UFO — almost certainly a P-Funk reference — and ends the track proudly proclaiming, “Illuminati, you can’t get me.”)
And yet it would be wrong to call Invite the Light a concept album. The only theme the whole album pays consistent tribute to is the almighty power of funk itself, and cuts like “HowUGonnaFuckAroundAndChooseABusta?,” “Missing U,” “O.B.E.,” “Kaint Let ‘Em Change Me” and plenty more seem immanently focused on the demands of the dancefloor. Even “I’m Just Tryna Survive” returns in the form of a “Party Version” where the dark implications of the original evaporate in a mist of triumphant synth chimes and vocoder lines.
Although the album is greatly varied, it’s still incredibly long to the point where it’s doubtful that it’s intended to be listened to in one sitting, as opposed to being mined for gems that DJs, remixers and mix-tape makers can utilize to fullest effect. Funk has always been about community, whether that means the connections made on the dancefloor or the bonds between friends sharing music. Just like how a woodworker’s fine mahogany chair or varnished oak bureau might end up juxtaposed against all the other disparate furniture in a person’s living room, the songs Dâm-Funk has collected on Invite the Light will find their true purpose in the way they are recontextualized by the listener.
Rating: Bad-Ass
