The Rimshots: "Down To Earth"

So, besides having a great band name and sufficiently spaced-out ‘70’s cover art, the music here is firing on all cylinders as well.  While I would still label this a “funk” album in the loosest sense, it has a distinct tendency towards a more disco-oriented club groove, something I’m not always into.  Yet these cats put that unique East Coast spin on their songs (straight outta Jersey baby!), and cuts like “Now Is The Time” and “Walter’s Inspiration” are definitely FONK-AY, with pocket for days and aesthetic to spare.  The more uptempo numbers like “Super Disco” and “7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Blow Your Whistle)” are most certainly designed for the dancefloor circa 1976, but they retain their period charms well, and the production is just bare-bones enough to keep everything sounding nice and raw, without the sickly-sweet polish of later disco music.  Recorded at the legendary All Platinum studios in Englewood, N.J., this is absolutely an album worth digging for.  I stumbled upon it by accident, and grabbed it as a bit of a “blind find,” knowing little about the group.  When I got home, I put it on the turntable with relatively vague expectations, and within seconds I was groovin’ to this shit.  Happy hunting…