Stream: Dam-Funk, ‘We Continue’

Andrew Veeder on June 26th, 2015

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It’s been six years since Dam-Funk, née Damon Riddick, released his debut solo album “Toeachizown,” a nearly 2-hour, 20-minute epic and sprawling odyssey that dabbled in boogie, disco, G-funk and R&B. In the years since, he has collaborated with Snoop, who traded in the Dogg for -zilla on the effort, 2013’s “7 Days of Funk,” as well as dropping a handful of EPs along the way, including 2010’s “Hood Pass Intact,” 2011’s “InnaFocusedDaze,” 2012’s “I Don’t Wanna Be a Star!,” and the recent “STFU,” available for $free.99. Now he is set to release a new full-length entitled “Invite the Light” on Sept. 4 via Stones Throw. The 20-track effort is described as a “loosely autobiographical concept album inspired by the trials and tribulations of his personal and professional life of the last six years,” produced entirely by Dam himself. Its first single, “We Continue,” is a shimmery taste of funk steeped in retro goodness, with a bouncing bass line, synth swells, and uplifting lyrics like, “No matter what you been through, y’all / Stay strong and always stand tall,” and, “Don’t you ever stop us / We continue,” topped off with some righteous guitar solos. The album features Ariel Pink, Leon Sylvers III and IV, Q-Tip on a pair of tracks, Snoop, and Junie Morrison of the Ohio Players, “who opens and closes the album with dire warnings of what could happen in a world without funk.” Which sounds like a nightmarish Twilight Zone episode.

||| Stream: “We Continue”