Customer Reviews

Secrets

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This is my favorite Confunkshun cd. The instrumental Indian Summer Love is well worth the price of the cd. This is classic mid-tempo r&b with great harmonies, tasty keyboard work and beautiful writing/arranging. I'd also recommend Loveshine (if you can find it) on vinyl. To my taste they became a little slicker and production-heavy in the eighties-still quality material but not as good as these two.

I had this album when I was growing up. When I recently received this recording from Amazon.com, I listened to the songs and the words just came back to me, like the years just disappeared.
Some of the highlights:

"Ffun" great party jam with a great bassline and horn arrangements.
"Indian Summer Love" beautiful instrumental groove
"Secrets" another mid-tempo groove that is just fun and relaxing to listen to.

"Secrets" is by far ConFunkShun's best project (and that's saying a lot because there were many!)

Con Funk Shun play songs,not grooves.Like their peers
EWF and Heatwave the band have earned something of an honorary
pop pass with "Doowhachawannadoo","Who Has The Time",the tital
song and the funk classic "Ffun",their biggest hit,but who cares.
Group leader Felton Pilate makes sure that the funk is always
there such as in "Confunkshunize Ya'" but also delivers a smooth
Kool & The Gang/EWF mellow fusiony number in the instrumental
"Indian Summer Love".Why this is a budget CD I will never know.
It deserves instant remastering with a huge booklet and bonus
tracks-it's a classic of late 70's pop/R&B and funk!

THIS CD HAS AN "EARTH WIND & FIRE" SOUND (BUT FUNKIER), AND IT SOUNDS GOOD TOO! IT ALSO HAS A INSTRUMENTAL JAZZY SONG CALLED "INDIAN SUMMER LOVE" THAT REMINDED ME OF KOOL & THE GANG'S "SUMMER MADNESS". THIS IS WHAT R&B IS ALL ABOUT!

On their sophmore release these Vallejo California natives actually sharpen up a good deal of the harder edged elements of their sound found on 1976'sCon Funk Shun and develop something of a new flavor to their sound. Seen by many people who,as I was at first familar with the band throught compilations as something of a fully west coast answer to EWF. Now that has some truth to it and not too. While bandleader Felton Pilate and Cedric Martin have similar vocal exchanges to Maurice White/Phillip Bailey and their harmony based,melodic groove sounds do have a passing similarity Con Funk Shun don't concentrate as much of their concepts as they do instrumental exchanges and songwriting. And this particular album features endless examples of their new style.

Despite the hard driving nature of the hit "Ffun" and "ConFunkShunIzeYa" these two horn heavy grooves are by no means indicative of the entire album as a whole "DoWhaChaWannaDo",with it's elegent mix of melodic arrangements,on time rhythm and strong craft showcases this as music that stands directly in between th earlier,classic "united funk" and the pre disco sophistifunk style. This also shows up on the smoother,more midtempo grooves of "Who has The Time" and the title cut,both powered by wah wah's,heavily reverbed rhythm guitars and sultry harmonies. The outright ballads "Tear In My Eye" and "I'll Set You Out OK" have all the sitar/orchestration effects of classic Northern soul with all the melody intact. "Indian Summer Love",an uptempo instrumental showcasing the jazzier end of the bands sound has a George Benson/Wes Montgomery/Bobby Broom style guitar exchange between Cedric and Felton that is pure icing on the cake.

Honestly have purchased this during the time I was really thoroughly exploring the funk genre I'd recommend this and other albums like it to those people who think they don't like funk or find it "annoying",an all too common phrase I hear sadly. It's melodic enough to show how wonderful music in the groove can be. Also the instrumental ability of the band is more than strong enough to make this great for more serious listening as well. Always mildly ignored and underpraised when compared to some of their contemporaries with more name recognition (The Commodores,Ohio Players,Kool & The Gang and The Bar Kays come to mind), Con Funk Shun had a definate niche carved out as among the smoother of them all. But smooth FUNK,not just smooth grooves and that's important to distinguish. So one will likely just put this on and take the ride with them because it will be a happy surprise for anyone pretty much.

I remember as a pre-teen (12) I heard this group Con Funk Shun on the radio and,they had this track "Ffun" and I simply enjoyed it! I had a paper route and one evening after collection, before I had a chance to pay my newspaper manager I decided to pay a visit to Mary's Record store (in Richmond,Va's Churchill/east end district) Mary's had all the soul/jazz hits. As I strolled in Mary was sitting comfortably actually playing this record on the turntable..after I told her how much I digged it (she must have been amazed and pleased that a youngster like myself could dig the funk of Con Funk Shun)she pulled her copy from the turnable and sold it to me for a price I could'nt refuse!..I still have the album,and it still jams. Mary's has been closed for over 25 years now,but the funk she delivered still lingers.