Parliament: Mothership Connection (2LP, 45rpm, 180g) [MOBILE FIDELITY]

Why you'll love it

Mobile Fidelity spreads the album over four sides at 45 RPM, mastered from the original analog tapes through DSD 256, on numbered 180g vinyl. Mothership Connection was Parliament's first gold and platinum album, and "Give Up the Funk (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker)" was their first million-selling single.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Cut at 45 RPM
• 180g vinyl
• Numbered
• Remastered from the original analog masters
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

George Clinton had a simple idea: if nobody expected to see Black people in outer space, he'd put them there. A big Star Trek fan, he dreamed up a Cadillac-shaped spaceship, a cast of cosmic characters and a pile of James Brown-strength grooves, and Mothership Connection became the blueprint for the whole P-Funk universe, onstage Mothership included.

This was the first Parliament album with Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley, fresh from the J.B.'s, and their horns give the record its punch. "P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up)" opens the broadcast, the title track brings in the Star Child, "Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication" is as much fun to play as it is to spell, and "Give Up the Funk" is the one that still empties chairs at parties. Clinton produced and conceived the whole thing, keeping the beat going at times with little more than his rap, a weird keyboard and cymbals.

The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2011, citing its enormous influence on jazz, rock and dance music, and BBC Music hailed it as a pioneering work of Afrofuturism. At 45 RPM you'll be up to flip the record every ten minutes or so, which is honestly the most exercise funk has ever asked of anyone.

Also at Kops: more Parliament on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab / Casablanca (cat# MFSL2-592), a reissue of the 1975 album.