Whether covering Pharaoh Sanders, dabbling in Turkish folk sounds, or keeping it classic, Brooklyn Funk Essentials never lets itself or its audience down. With a diverse range of influences and a stable, soulful core, the project always knows how to keep the party rolling. In the new video for “Funk Ain’t Ova”, they take said party into deep space – and never stop dancing. As the band puts it, this is “a tribute to all things space-funk, from Sun Ra to the Funkadelic Mothership, from Star Trek to Stargard, from Stephen Hawking to Steven Wright.”
These intergalactic influences manifest in a multiplicity of ways, from shots of the track’s lead vocalist Alison Limerick in androgynous alien wardrobe to retro computer renderings of circular spacecraft. It was animated by a friend of the band Martti Ekstrand, and includes “some goodies from public domain sci-fi movies”, making for a result as gloriously campy as such a description suggests. In between, self-shot and edited video of the collective dancing “in the moonscape desert of Lanzarote” speaks to a successful touchdown and a flow so strong, it stretches out into the stars.
Musically, “Funk Ain’t Ova” demonstrates its titular point brilliantly, with infectious, synth-heavy grooves at the forefront and psychedelic questions for the cosmos embedded in its lyrics (“Is space nocturnal / What’s the speed of dark?”). Limerick sings alongside fellow Londoner Desmond Foster, their voices lithe, warm, and just right for Lati Kronlund’s and Iwan VanHetten’s catchy beats. “Moog in the sky / Rhodes in the dirt / Everybody moves / Nobody gets hurt,” sings the group. It’s hard to imagine a better time.
“Funk Ain’t Ova” comes from Stay Good, out now via Dorado Records.