Ten years in the making, the debut long player from Funk Style Quality aka FSQ was released in 2020, the album featuring an all-star cast of funk legends: George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, Nona Hendryx, Fonda Rae, Denise King, and Dolette McDonald. The album was the brainchild of two of the most influential forces in Soul Clap’s musical journey, Chuck ‘Da Fonk’ Fishman and Sa’d ‘The Hourchild’ Ali (RIP). The original concept tells the story of someone with one last chance to have the party of their life! Now Soul Clap Records proudly present Reprise Reprise Tonight the remixes.
Kicking off with the king of Nu-disco Ray Mang, and his Reprise Tonight (Second Time Around Dub). Mang makes use of the slo-mo funk and delivers a timbale-tinged remix led by the vocals of Philadelphia’s disco and jazz chanteuse Denise King. Michael The Lion worked his remixes of Reprise Tonight and Vibe Out Now early in the album process, and here he ups the energy with an early 90s piano house rub, plus his new rework of Vibe Out Now that extends the original, turning it into a sleazy after-hours disco-house affair. Sa’d The Hourchild Ali shared the tracks early on with Tom Moulton who quickly turned in his A Tom Moulton Mix of Vibe Out Now and The Infinite Reprise. Moulton refines the FSQ approach and shows that less is more, as he pairs back the orchestral strings to their most melodic elements and strips back the layers of this epic tune.
Birdee goes in a different direction on Dancefloor Democracy, with a Nu-disco version for those who want a more vigorous workout. Dr Rubberfunk’s mix of the same cut captures the heart of the original sessions at FSQ’s G Koop’s in Oakland California, where both Funkadelic Billy Bass Nelson and George Clinton’s son Trey Lewd laid down the guitar lines. Jitwam’s Trouble Remix of Dancefloor Democracy speeds up the rhythm with cosmic synth pads and new guitar parts providing the perfect backdrop for interplanetary vocalists and living legend George Clinton and his son, Trey Lewd.
Charlie Soul Clap isn’t afraid to dial up the tempo on Peel Back which features Nona Hendryx. His Breakbeat for Ya Feet flies at 130 bpm and is set against a grainy old school beat that puts the tune right back in ’97! Lee Curtiss turns in a Prince inspired effort of What They Don’t Know led by Talking Heads vocalist Dolette McDonald. Closing out this fine package, DJ Rocca rinses FSQ and Fonda Rae (Over Like a Fat Rat, Touch Me) 11:00 AM, turning in a lush Italo disco cut with huge arpeggios, wide analog riffs, beautiful pads, and big electro drums. Fonda Rae sounding totally at home in DJ Rocca’s Italo Disco zone.
WWD: Hello Chuck, who are the members of FSQ and what parts do you all play?
There are six of us. FSQ started with me, Chuck Da Fonk (Fishman) and G Koop (Rob Mandell) who is a Grammy-nominated producer, mainly working the world of hip-hop, but he’s a versatile multi-instrumentalist working across all genres of music.
We’ve been working to refine our sound; it will be 10 years of FSQ in 2023.
Sa’d The Hourchild Ali and I met when I was touring with Parliament-Funkadelic in the late 1990s. Sa’d was an accomplished DJ having brought hip-hop and house music together in the early 1990s in Atlanta and New York. He was also a promo rep for the legendary Tommy Boy Records and is George Clinton’s nephew. Unfortunately, Sa’d passed away in 2018 but we carry his spirit with us.
One Era (Matt Coogan) and Chas Bronz (Tate Masimore) are incredible multi-instrumentalists and producers and have been a huge part of the FSQ machine since day one.
Morgan Wiley, of Adi Oasis, Choosy Lover and a few other projects, is a supreme keyboard player and audio engineer in New York City. He helped us put the 2020 FSQ album over the line and continues to be a production leader. We collaborate with dozens of other producers and artists, but the six of us is the core of the group and what makes up our sound.
WWD: How do you manage creative decisions with such a cast of players?
Well, first we want everyone to participate if they can, because that’s what makes up our sound, a track that has G Koop, One Era, Chas Bronz, Morgan Wiley and myself all playing on it. Each person brings a particular style of playing and the layers of those styles is what makes up an FSQ record, it’s a unique combination of talent packed into one tune. Sometimes we can’t get everyone working on the same production all at once, so you’ll wind up with two versions of a single track. For instance, for a remix we did for Charlie Soul Clap aka Lonely C, and G Koop turned in a Funkadelic sounding version of the tune, titled “True”, while I wanted something more Caribbean disco and club focused so One Era and I finished a version like that, and then now you had two versions both of which were excellent. Compromises can always be found.
WWD: You seem to do a lot of work with PFunk legend George Clinton – Parliament. What is your relationship with George?
I fancied myself to be on the level of George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic when I started out on the path of fulfilling my musical aspirations. So, I attached to myself the group whether they wanted me around or not. That initial chutzpah turned into something very special and familial, where I wound up touring with the group in the late 1990s and recording with many of the members. Later, around 2010 I helped George and P-Funk navigate the new world of social media, web stuff, and brand partnerships in a management role. I executed some super cool collaborations for George with Red Bull, Toyota Scion, Adidas and Soul Clap.
WWD: Such a star-studded cast on the original album tracks. How did you get so much funk royalty in one place?
Time was on our side; we recorded the ‘Reprise Tonight’ album over a period of several years. Also, it’s a lot of places! Disco legend Denise King cut her vocal tracks for the title track in Philadelphia in 2008. George Clinton and his son Trey Lewd put their contributions down at G Koop’s Oakland California studio in 2011. Sa’d Ali worked several years to secure Fonda Rae and by the time we nabbed a New York session with her in 2019, he had unfortunately passed on. Beyond timing, it’s also about trust. Winning the trust of funk and soul legends, so that they understand you are going to present them in the best possible way. We don’t have superstar budgets to even support the royalty we want to have on our records, so we must give a lot, win that trust, to get these legendary performances.
WWD: You are pretty tight with Soul Clap Records. What is your relationship with the guys?
It’s very similar to my story with P-Funk and George, again I first came into the relationship with a lot of bravado. I was like, “hey Soul Clap we want to do this music project FSQ on your record label.” I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. In return, myself, Sa’d and G Koop made sure Soul Clap had the opportunity to work with P-Funk. That P-Funk – Soul Clap collaboration was 10 years ago now, and our relationship has grown into a family affair; Eli Goldstein, Charlie Levine (Soul Clap) and I are brothers (if they want to tease me, they will call me their uncle). Soul Clap invested tremendously in the success of FSQ, and we are beyond grateful. We have had the opportunity to produce with Soul Clap on their own releases, and remix so many of the label’s artists over the years including Nona Hendryx, Nick Monaco, Life on Planets, Michael the Lion and many others. I continue to work with Soul Clap Records on the label’s business side, sharing my music industry knowledge on topics such as music publishing. It’s really the friendship and collaboration of a lifetime.
WWD: This is a concept album with its own unique story. How does that roll?
It’s the story of a person who thinks they will never have the opportunity to go out into the world and party, experience the universe of dance music, DJs, clubs, and after hours. But they get the chance, which is this album’s story – it’s their “Reprise” of past party experiences. And then once they are in that epic night of partying, how far do they take it? That’s why the final track on the album is “11:00” AM, it’s about dragging ass mid Sunday morning after a supersized party night. Sa’d and I once came home about that time from a Soul Clap party in Brooklyn in 2013. “Reprise Tonight” is based on real experiences. Each song is part of the larger story, for instance “What They Don’t Know” is about those people you see at afterhours who seem to be hanging around just because they are avoiding tough situations in their own lives, maybe at home. I left the dance music world for many years, and I wrote this album about my return to it, and the excess that followed. When the pandemic hit, a lot of us thought we would never be able to return a full life in music so this idea of a “Reprise” should really resonate with people, it’s also very metaphorical.
WWD: The remix album is loaded with talent. How did you get the legendary Tom Moulton on board and what are feelings on his delivery?
Sa’d developed the relationship with Tom Moulton over many years and when FSQ started, Sa’d played Tom our initial tracks and he loved them and remixed them for us. Tom broke down “Vibe Out Now” and the heavily orchestrated “Infinite Reprise” to their core disco elements, and I love his takes. For “A Tom Moulton Mix”, it’s not about adding additional instrumentation, it’s about arranging the tracks an artist already has, precisely EQ’ing them, and putting every sound in its proper place so that the track is tight and that all the parts can be heard. I got to meet with Tom quite a bit when I lived in New York City. Now that I am based in LA, I miss opportunities to connect with him in real life because he’s THE encyclopaedia of all music, artists and genres. We could talk for hours about music.
WWD: The artwork is pretty amazing what’s the story on this?
The original album artwork was developed by R Stozo, a visual artist who produced many of the Parliament-Funkadelic album covers in the 1970s and 80s. He featured FSQ members as cartoon characters on the front cover, a lyrics sheet insert with the song titles illustrated and more of our friends like Soul Clap presented as cartoons, and a back cover with our big guests like George Clinton, Nona Hendryx, Fonda Rae, and more. Also on the back cover, there’s a clock showing the progression of the “Reprise Tonight” party from start to finish, and how the songs follow the order of it, from the title track through “11:00 AM”. We will be making some t-shirts from this soon, it’s pretty epic art by R Stozo. The “Reprise Reprise Tonight” artwork remixes the color scheme from the original 2020 release and adds the faces of the remix producers on to the front and back cover as R Stozo P-Funk styled cartoons.
WWD: There are so many interesting parts to this project, tell us something that we might not ever know about it?
Some of the remixes that you find on “Reprise Reprise Tonight” were actually the original mixes, but we kept on refining the music for the 2020 release. For example, Dr Rubberfunk’s remix of “Dancefloor Democracy” was the original mix presented in 2013, but we kept on tweaking it and came up with something new. “Reprise Tonight” album was a conceptual follow up to our song “Break The Funk” which appeared on Soul Clap Records’ “Tempo Dreams Vol 3” compilation in 2015. We will keep building on the story from “Reprise Tonight” with our next concept album already in production, titled “Nightlife Geography”. The first single from that “Pain and Beauty” which posthumously features Sa’d “The Hourchild” Ali, will release on his heavenly birthday, November 29th.