By Martin Jones FREAK POWER
DRIVE THRU BOOTY 4th & Broadway/Island
I
t was that unforgettable 1995 Levi’s commercial. Remember? The one where the cab driver picks up a hot girl in Levi’s 501s only to discover she’s not what he presumed… the tag line twist, ‘Cut For Men Since 1850’. The sultry soundtrack sounded like nothing else at the time, a mixture of classic soul and modern production with a psychedelic edge. The track, ‘Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out’, was a major hit for Freak Power, from their debut album, Drive-Thru Booty. The song and the album were about to sink into oblivion before the commercial catapulted it to Number Three on the British charts. I dug out Drive-Thru Booty the other day and it still stands up. Essentially a collaboration between Norman ‘Fatboy Slim’ Cook and trombonist/vocalist Ashley Slater, Freak Power kind of emerged with the mid-‘90s British trip hop scene but was so much more fun and irreverent. Cook, who is credited with most of the songwriting on the record, had a wealth of music experience as an influential DJ in Brighton, as a member of indie outfit The Housemartins and founder of the collective Beats International. The latter’s hit, ‘Dub Be Good To Me’ almost sent him bankrupt via unauthorised samples/copyright infringements and it was soon after that that Cook formed Freak Power (hopefully the Levi’s ad campaign got him back on his feet).
There’s some confusion over how the band was formed and who actually played on the first album, so it was great to track down original bass player Dale Davis for his side of the story. Davis, who was credited as ‘Davies’ on the album, went on to become Amy Winehouse’s Musical Director. “There’s a bit of backstory to it because I worked with Norman in Beats International, his band before which turned into Freak Power. I went to a club night that Norman was doing one night and the stuff he was playing was amazing. When I actually got around to meeting him I was on the same trajectory as far as musical styles, when I got to join the band. “So, there was Norman, there was Ashley Slater the lead singer and the other writer in the band, and he had a band called Microgroove and Norman used them as his backing band when they went out on the road. “So Beats International finished at the end of 1992 and then six months later I got a call to see if I would work with Freak Power, because he’d just put this new project together out of the two bands. And Norman had written ‘Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out’ and he was already recording, so I joined after that.” Davis recalls that Drive-Thru Booty was recorded over a year in batches between touring. The playing and production are Steely Dan level. A joyous blend of Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Funkadelic, its grooves are formidable and it’s a treat through headphones with phasers and panning rendering a psychedelic swirl. Drums (Jim Carmichael), keys (Cyril McCammon) and guitars are all finely sculpted and work around judicious samples and Slater’s Isaac Hayes vocals (indeed ‘The Theme From Shaft’ could have been the basic blueprint for the album). Drive-Thru Booty is a well plotted journey too, blooming gradually through opening bass groove of ‘Moonbeam Woman’ before erupting into a full funk workout and wasting no time getting to first single ‘Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out’. The album even has its own band theme ‘Freak Power’, crackling with wah wah guitar and lush backing vocals. There are few weak moments on the album, even the barest, single chord bass and drum grooves delivered with disarming flair. The highlights are generous; the almost delicate melody of ‘Running Away’, paired with the two-chord, flute-augmented drive of ‘Change My Mind’; the slow build climax of ‘Waiting
For The Story To End’ and the intricate samples and Bootsy Collins psych-funk of ‘Big Time’. Dale recalls how the grooves were created. “Well Norman, because he was a bass player in The Housemartins, and he’s a great musician even though he doesn’t give himself credit, he had the bass lines in his head so it would be a combination of his bass lines and what I threw into the project. So ‘Waiting For The Story To End’ I was just mucking about and came up with the high riff and Ashley sort of just said, ‘okay repeat that’. ‘What Is It?’ And ‘Freak Power’, they were already Ashley’s tunes. So, I had played them beforehand with Microgroove. But it was a crazy time because that’s how I got my break!” The bonus remix album, Fried Funk Food leaves the past way behind in favour of modern space exploration… widescreen dub instrumental versions that would stand up against anything contemporary like Khruangbin and demonstrate the project’s depth and offer glimmers of Cook’s past in Beats International, and unforeseen superstardom as Fatboy Slim. “It’s interesting to watch his transition through Freak Power into Fatboy Slim,” says Davis, “because he’s genuinely a real talent in the studio so when you listen to You’ve Come A Long Way, you could see the direction he was going in. He used to enjoy himself on the weekends and then he’d go into the studio and transfer all of that into the music. He parties hard and works hard. Works harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. So, I’ve got a lot of respect for him.” About a year into Freak Power, Davis left the band for a lifestyle change after he was stabbed outside his house. Clearly it was a traumatic time and though he’s since re-joined the latest Slater-led incarnation of Freak Power, he laughs that he somehow got written out of the band’s history. “The guy who wrote up the new Freak Power website, he put everyone’s bios on there and they were massive. And I got three lines (laughs). And I had to tell him I was an original member, he didn’t even credit me because he just didn’t know. So, it did get to the point where I thought, I really should let people know that I played in the band (laughs).” The reborn Slater/Davis Freak Power released a 2018 EP, United State and continue to collaborate and tour. To read Martin jones interview with Dale Davis visit rhythms.com.au 69
