Jan 3, 2019
The Album: Parliament: The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (1976)
In the 1970s, no single artist was as influential in transforming the sound of funk as George Clinton. If the funk of the late '60s was embodied in the sparse, frenetic rhythms of James Brown, Clinton filled out and polished the sound across the '70s, with beefy banks of horns and raucous guitars. By the time The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein came out in the mid 1970s, the P-Funk sound was in full flower and that's when a young DJ from outside Detroit crossed paths with The P.
Mayer Hawthorne, back when, was still known as DJ Haircut but a move to Los Angeles in the 2000s lead to a transformation into the smooth crooner we know of him today. Besides the four solo studio albums he’s recorded, he’s also one-half of the retro boogie team known Tuxedo(alongside Jake One) as well as half of the post-punk n’ funk duo, Jaded Incorporated, (alongside 14KT). Fun fact: Jaded Inc’s 2014 album The Big Knock was released by Casablanca Records, long-long time home to Parliament’s recordings, including The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein.
More on Mayer Hawthorne
More on The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein
Show Tracklisting (all songs from The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein unless indicated otherwise):
Here is the Spotify playlist of as many songs as we can find on there.
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