Late last summer, the members of Dumpstaphunk got breaks from their various touring duties. They took advantage of the moment and Ivan and Ian Neville, Tony Hall, Nick Daniels and Raymond Weber got together to record an album’s worth of material. This funky five-song EP comes from those sessions and it presents the band doing what does it best. In a word, it’s heavy. With two basses, there’s a lot of push in Dumpstaphunk, but there’s nothing extraneous. If a part doesn’t make a song funkier, it’s out.

 

Lyrically, the album reflects the times. We don’t go to funk albums for great profundity, but “Livin Ina Worl Gone Mad” and “Turn This Thing Around” reflect the common man’s take on these troubling times. “We’ve got to help those people out,” Hall sings in “Meanwhile,” and it’s the sort of simple wisdom that cuts through all the complicating/distracting details.

 

Despite the Neville name associated with the project, Dumpstaphunk is very different from any of the fathers’ projects. There are no nods to world music nor to a hippy vibe. It’s musically hard-nosed and rooted in 1970s inner city funk. The songs don’t envision a better world or a better way; “Meanwhile” and “Shake” share a message of a sort in that they advocate acceptance and enjoying yourself because that’s about all you can do. As far as advice goes, it’s probably better than anyone would like to admit, and when it’s set in a funk as muscular as they lay down here, it’s hard to think of a better idea.