MENACE

DOGHOUSE

  1/  Doghouse                                   (Menace,Kasavan)              5.03
  2/  Silly Stupid                               (Menace,Kasavan)              5.11
  3/  Just Say Yes                               (Menace)                      4.06
  4/  K 9 6 9                                    (Menace)                      5.28
  5/  Give It Up                                 (Menace)                      5.30
  6/  One Lover                                  (Menace,Kasavan)              5.49
  7/  Farfetched                                 (Menace)                      4.40
  8/  Doggy Dub                                  (Menace)                      6.02

          Recorded at Platinum Island, New York City
          Engineered by Oz Fritz and Dmitri Jakimowicz
          Assistant Engineers: Vee Zamaranno and Frank Espinal
          Mixed by Kennan Keating
          Track 4 mixed by Jason Corsaro
          Assistant mix engineer: Kenny Quartertone
          Produced by Bill Laswell
          Track 8 produced by Keith Le Blanc
Bootsy Collins and Bill Laswell: bass; Bernie Worrell, Toby Kasavan and Menace: keyboards; Maceo Parker : saxophone; Allen Michaels (6): saxophone solo; Menace: guitars; Mike Hampton (2,7): guitar solo; Nicky Skopelitis (6): guitar solo, sitar; Aiyb Dieng : percussion; Nicky Skopelitis and Menace: Fairlight programming; Marilyn Redfield, Debbe Cole, Elaine Lockley, Gary "Mudbone" Cooper, Menace, Phillip Brown, "Priest" and Toby Kasavan: background vocals.

          1989 - Bite Records (Netherlands), 656.244-2 (CD)
          1989 - Jumpstreet (USA), JS 4001 (CD)
          1989 - Jumpstreet (USA), JS LP 4001 (Vinyl)

REVIEWS :

Funk's not as easy as Bill Laswell thinks it is. Once again, the producer gathered a bunch of P-Funk alumni - Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Mike Hampton, Maceo Parker - and put them behind a "way-out" frontman: Menace, a guitarist who looks like Prince appearing in Revenge Of The Nerds and yowls like a poor man's Larry Blackmon. The biggest problem is the overly loud, incredibly unimaginative drum programming by Laswell crony Nick Skopelitis. The second biggest problem is the tired vamps all the uptempo tunes are built on ("K969"). If the funk wasn't weak enough, there's an unbearable ballad ("One Lover") and a mind-numbing dub mix by Keith Le Blanc ("Doggy Dub"). And the P-Funkers don't do much to redeem the project: Bootsy and Maceo play like shadows of themselves. In a word, horrendous.

1 1/2 stars out of 5

David Bertrand Wilson (courtesy of the Wilson and Alroy's Record Reviews website)