BGO Records www.bgo-records.com [Release date 31.03.23]

Back in the day (mid to late 1980s), I was a closet listener to Robbie Vincent’s BBC Radio 1 show when he would frequently implore his audience to “open the fridge and freezer door” when the funk music he played got too “hot.”

I am sure Dexter Wansel was a staple in his playlist. During my sometime fixation with jazz funk in the late 1970s and 1980s I wasn’t really aware of Wansel. He actually made his name contributing to the “Philadelphia Sound” made popular by Gamble & Huff (The O’Jays, Billy Paul et al) for whom he arranged and produced several artists.

But it was his debut Life On Mars in 1976 that established him as a solo contender and not least the superb title track which features the Instant Funk rhythm section. The vocals are mere embellishments to what is basically forward thrust jazz funk instrumentals characterised by Wansel’s deft keyboard playing.

Some like ‘Stargazer’ have a blaxpoitation-like film theme quality. The addition of MFSB (with whom Wansel had worked in the live situation) and their characteristic sweeping strings is another feature. A track like ‘Theme From The Planets’ showed that Wansel had fully embraced the early use of synthesisers.

A year later What The World Is Coming To mixed vocal and instrumentals but again enhanced throughout by the MSFB strings as displayed on the opening track ‘First Light Of The Morning’.

Whilst the vocal-led tracks are, to be honest, of their time and fairly uneventful (although showcasing future solo star Jean Carn) it is perhaps unsurprising that the instrumentals kick ass such as the brass-led ‘Ode Infinitum’ and the lighter weight ‘Disco Lights’. A track like ‘What Is The World Coming To’ demonstrates a softer side with flugelhorn solo from Al Harrison and children playing in the background.

Wansel was evidenty inspired by the wider universe (his band were called The Planets), and the liner note to his 1976 debut was a quote from his patron Leon Gamble decrying space travel when “Man has not mastered his existence on earth.”

1978′s Voyager came after the launch of two spacecraft tasked with performing studies of Jupiter and Saturn but with the added novelty that each carried a “golden disc” with music and spoken word recordings to inform any extra-terrestrials.

Wholly instrumental albums are notoriously a difficult commercial proposition (but are arguably more durable over time) and were less likely to achieve chart status. Whilst the vocal tracks on ‘Voyager’ are distinctly average when compared to contemporaries it didn’t stop the album becoming Wansel’s most successful and with reasonable Billboard chart placings.

However, it’s the instrumental stuff that shines.

The fast moving title track and ‘Time Is The Teacher’ are both a showcase for the band’s new addition on sax, George Howard. On the former there is even a rock-tinged guitar solo! And ‘Latin Love (Let Me Know)’ extends this further and reminds me of the contemporaneous ‘Streamline’ album released by Lenny White which fused rock and funk.

The final album in this series (and the final album for Philadelphia International Records) in 1979 Time Is Slipping Away included the classic ‘The Sweetest Pain’ featuring Terri Wells and The Jones Girls (who had a hit in 1981 with Wansel’s song ‘Nights Over Egypt’). But for the rest it’s fairly average disco fodder.

The turning point for disco funk would come in 1979 when a “Disco Sucks” campaign in the US reacted to the genre’s persistence.

For those, like me, who missed out on Dexter Wansel first time round this is a great overall package with some real highlights (and with the usual exemplary liner note from Charles Waring although sadly not based on a recent interview). ***1/2

Review by David Randall

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Josh Taerk Sunday Sessions 2024

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David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 7 April 2024.

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Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024

ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 15 April 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)

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