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Baker's Dozen

Getting Hypnotised: John Robb Finds The Funk In Unusual Places
Julian Marszalek , July 12th, 2017 08:35

How did it take us nearly a decade to ask Brother John Robb for his Baker's Dozen choices? The Membranes frontman sits down with Julian Marszalek to discuss 13 favourite records where over the years he's dug out the most funk

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Bauhaus – 'Kick In The Eye'
This has got such a groove to it and it's a great funk track. And Bauhaus are a band that are really steeped in black music. They played in disco bands before they played in punk bands. All over their tracks you can hear dub, funk, soul and disco but this track especially has a funk groove. They're a great group.

This was built for the dancefloor and that's the interesting thing about goth culture. It was dark music and that kind of music is the best but when you can dance to it; it's even better then. And the great thing here is that you can have a dark theme that boys and girls can dance to.

Goth music was built around clubs and it was almost less about the live gigs and more about the clubs. It was one of the first rock music forms that if it wasn't going to work in a club then it wasn't going to work anywhere.

This is such a magical record and David J is one of the great bass players. Funk is so much about the bass. The idea is that the bass is central to the song. I love the way that he plays the bass and the riff and the groove, and the guitar plays against. I love that kind of music. And a lot of post-punk and goth music was just that. Daniel Ash is a great guitar player and he plays these weird noises instead of the obvious funk licks. He shimmers, he keeps out of the way and it's absolutely perfect. And it also makes the whole thing quite trippy.

They were so fucking good at what they did.