Mandrill – New Worlds/ Getting In The Mood
Mandrill are one the greatest Funk Bands of all time. The Nucleus of the band are the multi instrumentalist  Wilson Brothers , Carlos, Louis, Ric and Wilfredo ‘Wolf’ who were  born in Panama but raised in Brooklyn NY  along wth Claude ‘Coffee’ Cave. In the early 70’s  their sound was very unique, fusing Street Funk, with Latin rhythms, jazzy overtunes, great melodies and soulful vocals. Their Polydor albums from the early 70’s were ground breaking and had great energy and sincerity to the music, and the lyrics often had environmental and humanitarian consciousness.   I remember buying their first 45 ‘Mandrill’ and thinking I’d never heard anything like it before, chattering guitars and blazing horns over an almost frantic rhythm, with the sheer power that only a large ensemble could create.  ‘Fencewalk’ from their ‘Composite Truth’ album is a funk classic. This and many of their tracks from that period have been used as samples on Hip Hop tracks, especially ‘Fat City Strut’ from their ‘Just Outside of Town’ album.   

After 5 albums for Polydor they signed to United Artists in 1975 and recorded one of their best ever album’s ‘Solid’ that epitomized their Latin Funk sound. In 1977 they relocated to Los Angeles and signed to Arista bouncing back with their ‘We Are One’ album which contained the disco funk classics ‘Funky Monkey’ and ‘Can You Handle It’. The two albums contained on this CD ‘New Worlds’ from 1978 and ‘Getting InThe Mood’ from 1980 followed that with a slimmed down core five piece band supported by guest musicians and background vocalists. These albums had a more soulful sound than their earlier albums which were more Funk oriented.

‘New Worlds’ contains the popular modern soul dancer ‘Too Late’ , which was also issued on what is now a very in demand and rare 7” single. ‘It’s So Easy Loving You’ is a beautiful dancer with great melodies and harmonies. ‘Stay Tonite’ has more energy but again its those so soulful vocals that really make this such a great track. A remixed promotional only 12” version enhances the original album track and is included here as a bonus track (or could not be included here because of space limitations but is available on our ‘Groove on Down Volume 2 compilation). ***WHICHEVER APPLIES***

‘Getting In The Mood’ includes the dancer ‘Feeling Good’ another uplifting track, the popular ‘My Kind Of Girl (My Girl)’  and ‘Getting In The Mood’ a fantastic haunting mid tempo track that has layers of sound and highlights the soulful vocal  harmonies on which Mandrill excelled on this style of track.

After these albums Mandrill made one more album ‘Energise’ on Montage in 1982, but the Band are still together performing and have recently written a song in tribute to Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign, and are recording a new album featuring many well known guest musicians and vocalists. They are also actively involved in a campaign focusing on the preservation of Rain Forests and the plight of the Mandrill (West African Baboon).

We are proud to present these two albums on CD for the first time in our 2 album on 1 CD series. 

Laurence Prangell
January 2009.