Sure I grew up on Tea for the Tillerman, sure my chilhood was very Harold and Maude-esque, and sure I have always loved Cat Stevens. He was popular right about the time that many moms and pops record collections were being absorbed and raided to form the building blocks of hip hop. And yet the general consensus is that this Cat is not Funky. Just like 60-70's contemporary Neil Young, Yusef (nee Cat)was not the sort of guy to be pigeonholed. Izitso is Cat's Trans, an exploration of the electronics available at the time by an artist generally associated with traditional folk/rock instrumentation. Anyhow the track I have here is the only song ever sampled by the Hip Hop nation in Mr.Islam's catalog. That is according to the sacred text of breakbeats Is it funky enough? Don't be afraid to tell me no. I can take some abuse even. In part 2, I will present my final arguments in this case.
My Trusted MOGs
To quote my wife: "That is desperately irritating. Who is it? Oh." Interesting but not funky enough.
My Trusted MOGs
It's not bad, but he's definitely not among my favorites. The tune's just a little to square on the beat, and he could definitely do more with accents and dynamic contrast since a large part of the song is looped. Still, it's moderately catchy. Sounds like the background to an early-generation video game. -Ian
My Trusted MOGs
Ian and Jonh thank you for your frank assesments. I guess Cat should've stuck to his acoustic guitar and lyric writing. It is from 1977 so the early gen video game thing is about right.
My Trusted MOGs
hmm, yeah I'd definitely agree with these comments. the bass is just missing so the funk is not present. not so bad though, it holds up.