Funkadelic: Toys

While there are plenty of P-Funk recordings to keep us warm and fuzzy through winter, it never hurts when we get something unheard from the original line-up. Toys is a lounge seat in a Detroit studio circa 1973, featuring only a handful of complete songs, but plenty of long, driving, funked out jam sessions. The album features work done with Detroit’s legendary Westbound Records, an era that was many labels and personnel changes ago for George Clinton, who is still working on music today. Insight into the energy that moved the funk sound through its evolution is provided by expert Rob Bowman. For a non-album, this is a pretty cohesive set of unfinished tracks that remind us there was a time when sugary and good were not mutually exclusive.