Mandingo!

Some of my posts are 80s rarities from my record collection, some are even older but not necessarily rare, and some, like this post, are of things I just recently picked up that blew me away.  Mandingo's The Primeval Rhythm of Life is a prime slice of fake tribal funk from England circa 1973.  It sounds like a big band got hold of some David Axelrod scores, but then one band member wanted to be heard better and started playing louder, so then another one did, and another, until everybody is just blaring all over the place, and it rocks!  And there's no end to the percussion tracks!  The song titles are all borderline offensive stereotypes like "Sacrifice," "Jungle Wedding," "Chant of the Virgins," etc.  Here is "Black Rite"; like all the songs on the album, it builds up steam, and at about halfway through really starts cooking with some great horn work:

Mandingo - 02 - Black Rite

Mandingo

The album has been featured on two zip blogs, My Favourite Sound and It's Coming Out of Your Speaker.  There you will find links to download the whole album; it's a rip of a somewhat distressed vinyl LP, but whaddya want fer nuthin'?  A commenter at Speaker reveals that "Mandingo" is actually Geoff Love and his Orchestra. I had never heard of Geoff Love (1917-1991) before; he was responsible for lots of easy-listening TV theme song albums which are apparently not highly regarded.  But if the Mandingo album is any indicator of his skills as an arranger and bandleader, I think his catalog will bear some looking into.