Bandcamp Takes Me to Funkytown: Santiago, Mandrill, & Booty-O's

I was just having a visit with one of my best friends, Bandcamp, and there was a featured bit entitled "After 40 Years, Neftali Santiago Releases His Solo Funk Masterwork," so of course I had to read that (as you can do, too, for free, of course, because Bandcamp is cool like that), and that was really interesting, so I hit the play button for the first track on the just released 22 Somerset Dr. (1976​-​1978)--which is kind of a greatest hits + some stuff that had never before seen the light of day--and heard a little thing called "Feeling Good" which is most excellent funkiness.

So then I took a listen to the second track, "Land Of The Leaping No No," and it also was a very pleasing scent in my nostrils, so I just kept hitting the buttons for the next track until I came to the end of the album. It goes like this:

3.  Bionic Funk (4:09)
4.  Alone Together (3:10)
5.  Freakin (1978 Demo) (3:48)
6.  To And From Gamma 4 (1:49)
7.  Set It Free (5:52)
8.  Let Our Your Beast (3:51)
9.  Everybody Hears But Nobody Listens (4:04)
10.  Feelin Good (Instrumental 1976) (2:54)
11.  Land Of The Leaping No No (Alternate Version 1978) (1:40)

And I've got to say . . . I don't know much about funk, but this is a very funky album. I am already imagining Jacqueline putting several of these songs into heavy rotation on her playlist. (She is quite a funky girl . . . with Rick James' "Superfreak," The Commodores' "Brick House," and Parliament's "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof off the Sucker)" being regulars in her playlists.) 

BTW, if you speak funk, then you should know that Neftali Santiago did drums, percussion, vocals, and songwriting for the band Mandrill . . . which is, according to a couple of websites I've stumbled upon, "One of the most sampled groups today . . . . "
Also, the songs on 22 Somerset Dr.  include work by Cordell “Boogie” Mosson and Garry Shider from Parliament-Funkadelic, so there's that. 

One of the most striking things about this music is how it embodies The Power of Positivity. (Yes, that was an allusion to New Day from WWE. I know my booty from my Booty-O's.) For instance, in the song "Alone Together" the refrain is "Oh yes we can / Oh we can do it." And in "Everybody Hears But Nobody Listens" we hear, "Listen to your mother / Have respect for your brother." You don't get a whole lot of that kind of thing these days, y'know?

So if you give a funk, go to Bandcamp and lay down ten bucks and get it on. The album is also available on Amazon for 51 cents cheaper, but splurge a little and go Bandcamp--I am pretty sure that they give the artists a better deal on the royalties. Just sayin', sir.