The Nazty: "I Got To Move"

Detroit funksters the Nazty had many musical incarnations.  Before they were the Nazty they were Black Nasty, cutting some very rare regional singles as well as the landmark early funk-rock LP “Talking To The People” on Stax's Enterprise sub-label.  After they failed to chart with 1975’s “I Got To Move,” they made some line-up changes and morphed into the ADC Band, a more successful late ‘70’s funk outfit famous for the P-Funk-sounding single “Long Stroke.”  This leaves the band’s lone LP recorded as the Nazty in a strange sort of netherworld, one in which they laid down some excellent, soulful, rock-tinged funk, and yet also one in which the group seemed automatically destined for commercial failure.  “I Got To Move” was released on the tiny Mankind label, an obscure Southern indie with few major charting artists, and so who knows what the intentions of cutting a one-off project like this originally were.  Regardless of the mysterious origins and/or motivations driving the creation of this album, it stands on its own two feet as a unique entry in both the funk and funk-rock genres.  Songs like “Bicentennial Rock & Roll,” “No Deposit, No Return” and the title track are dead-set on the heavy funk, with chattering, fuzzy guitar solos sailing in and out of the mix.  Slower ballads like “I Need Love” and “Within” are tastefully executed as well, although not quite up to the standards of some of the more revolutionary sweet soul being released throughout the country at the time.  The final track, “Space Boogie,” foreshadows the direction the group would take as it evolved into the ADC Band; it reveals a heavy P-Funk influence with its flanged-out keys and guitar, and even the lyrics approach the same sort of cosmic mysticism that was stock and trade for George Clinton and his crew.  Overall, this album rises beyond its cult status to assume its rightful designation as a well-produced and thoughtfully conceived funk classic.