0005. Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band
Bongo Rock

One of the most sampled drumbreaks comes from The Incredible Bongo Bands rendition of Apache and it was a delight to see the number come up for this album. I had a bit of difficulty tracking it down due to that all versons of it I could find was the 2006 re-release with "bonus tracks" (i.e. the second album crammed into the first and put into a blender).
It ended with me re-arranging the tracklist of the re-release and getting the full mp3 experience...

But it's a fun record, so it's worth the hassle. Right from the start it feels like I'm in a blaxploitaion movie (and my 'fro's grown a couple of inches) or guest starring in a 70's cop series (still with a massive 'fro though).

Some things in the production seem strange though. Like the fade out of Bongolia - it seems like the song could have gone on for at least a couple of minutes more with preserved intensity, but someone went and wrecked the party by turning the stereo down. Also - I can see why the drum break from Apache became such a sample hit, but as it drags on (2:19-3:47) it gets kind of boring (like the 15 hour Peter Criss drum solo on KISS - Alive!) so I feel relieved when the other instruments join in again. All drums and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

To be honest I got to say that its a pretty uneven album, but it's still pretty funky when the mood sets in.

Off topic: Lyricwise the album (which doesn't contain a single syllable) is still better than most of todays hits (I mean "I get a thousand hugs / from ten million lightning bugs"? Come on Owl City - put out or get out!).