STONED SOUL PICNIC - Erotic Cakes - 2007 - Album review
HIGHLIGHTS: Ain't Gonna Tell No One - The Grinder Pt. 1 - Hardtop 22 - Vote For Number 6
RATING: 4/5
"So it's basically Hammond organ-led heavy funk that seems like it was made in 1967?" My mate looked at me for confirmation.
I looked back. "You know what your trouble is?" I asked. "You make that sound like a bad thing."
This album is basically the audio equivalent of the Smirnoff bottle that shows you reality when you hold it in front of your eyes in the advert. In the case of 'Erotic Cakes' however, it doesn’t matter where you are, listening to this you’ll feel like you're in a smoky basement club in swinging Soho, 60 wing mirror scooter outside, mini-skirted dolly bird on either arm, sporting a sharp Italian suit. Which - if you think about it - isn't a bad position to be in. Stoned Soul Picnic are an instrumental funk band who appear to worship at the twin altars of Bryan Auger and The Meters (legendary British Hammond organist and legendary New Orleans funk band, respectively) and make no secret of it. 'Ain't Gonna tell No One' (one of the highlights of the Let's Boogaloo 3 compilation - see review on this site) - is basically a high-octane dancefloor magnet and features the vocal talents of guest soul singer Marika Ling who also appears on the groovy 'Ready For Seven'. Jesus - it's catching - now I'm starting to sound like Austin Powers. 'The Grinder Part 1' is a hefty slice of mod funk that has guitars scrapping with an organ all the way through and the whole thing (like every track) is underpinned by a rock solid rhythm section. 'Hardtop 22' opens with a phat squelchy clavinet riff that requires your immediate hip-shaking attention, 'Vote For Number 6' turns the funky amp up to 11 with the organ riff of the album and the (presumably) Homer Simpson inspired album title track certainly brought the chick who was sampled on it to orgasm. Despite its short length (39 minutes) there is, at times, a sense of a kind of sprawling funky jam going on when you listen to the album. It's not that the tracks are overlong (they manage to fit 12 in) - more that the band have a kind of funky attention deficit disorder when it comes to riffs and at times I found myself wanting to hear more of one riff when they were already on their third in the same song. Maybe that's a consequence of listening to too much hip-hop. Still - if that is a complaint - I guess it's the right kind. If you didn't like the whole 60s organ sound before you probably still won't - but if the opposite is true - you'll be scrabbling rabidly for your latest hit of hammond crack.
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