Wanna Be Your Man

Album review

When San Francisco funkmaster Anthony Butler issued his debut album under the Prophet moniker in 1984, it already qualified as "futuristic." The detuned synths, hard rhythms, and icy atmospheres of Right on Time (a privately pressed album released on Butler's own Treasure label) aimed for the sound of ubiquitous funk and boogie hits of its day but landed somewhere far more alien and detached sounding. Ironically, Right on Time was so far ahead of its time that the record vanished into obscurity during the '80s, only to become a ravenously sought-after collector's item decades later among crate diggers and sample-hungry DJs. Among those who came to champion Prophet's excellence long after the fact were Stones Throw label head Peanut Butter Wolf and producer Mndsgn who sought Butler out and helped orchestrate the creation of Wanna Be Your Man, Prophet’s second album and first in 34 years. How little the two albums really differ sonically with so much time between them is a testament to how strong Butler's original vision for the project was even in the early 80’s. Certain circles of music fans have come around to the kind of outsider R&B Prophet was making in his nascent days, but Wanna Be Your Man is warped and weird even by 2018 standards, expanding on the disjointed cosmic funk landscapes of the debut but upping the oddity to make up for lost time. The nostalgic impulse to re-create sounds from a lost era is one thing, but Butler simply picks up where he left off like it was just another day at the office. This type of stalwart effortlessness makes for sounds that couldn't be achieved by mere imitators. The entire production of the title track sounds vaguely water-damaged, with bubbling synths winding in between glossy harmonies and ambling, slightly confused drum machine rhythms. A more recent purveyor of extraterrestrial funk, Nite Jewel, shows up to guest star on "Tonight." This tale of would-be seduction stutters along with odd-measure rhythms, crowded funk guitar, and Nite Jewel's plastic falsetto all funneling into the song’s delightfully jumbled glow. Two songs from Right on Time are reworked here as well, the titular track and "Really Turn Me On." Though both benefit from Butler bringing a clearly renewed excitement to the project, neither song sounds dramatically updated outside of some minor, relative clarity in the production and arrangement. The inclusion of these older songs furthers the impact of just how unique Prophet's sound is. The closest parallels to this type of muted, mutated funk aren't pop bands that came in later generations as part of a natural lineage, but rather producers and songwriters looking to Prophet and other obscure anomalies like him to inform their sounds. Wanna Be Your Man retains all the freak funk qualities of Prophet's earlier work, not so much a recontextualization of what came before it, but simply the next chapter from an artist still light years ahead of his time.

© Fred Thomas /TiVo