Cameo Word Up!

Recorded at Quad Recording Studio, Counter Point Studio, Power Station Studio, and Sound Ideas Studio, New York, New York.
Cameo: Larry Blackmon, Nathan Leftenant, Tomi Jenkins.
Personnel: Larry Blackmon (vocals, bass guitar, drums, percussion, background vocals); Tomi Jenkins (vocals, background vocals); Charlie Singleton (guitar, background vocals); Patrick Buchanon (guitar); Melvin Wells (saxophone, background vocals); Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker (saxophone); Crispin Cioe (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Arno Hecht (tenor saxophone); Paul Litterall (trumpet); Robert Funk (trombone); Kevin Kendricks, Merv DePyere, Merv De Peyer, Kenni Hairston, Bernard Wright, Eric Rehl (keyboards); Peter Scherer (synthesizer, programming); Michael Burnett (bass guitar, background vocals); Aaron Mills (bass guitar); Sammy Merendino (drums, programming, drum programming); Duduka Da Fonseca, Giovanni Hidalgo, Steve Thornton (percussion); William "Willy Gunz" Morris, Wilbur Morris, Nathan Leftenant (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Eric Calvi; Dave Ogrin; Matthew Kasha; Alan Meyerson.
Recording information: Counter Point Studio, NY, NY; Power Station Studio, NY, NY; Quad Recording Studio, NY, NY; Sound Ideas Studio.
The most inescapable funk single of 1986 was Cameo's brilliant "Word Up!," a perfect fusion of gimmicky production--Larry Blackmon's distinctive lead vocal was recorded through a transistor radio to give it a curiously distant, almost robotic quality--and an almost painfully funky groove. Following it with the nearly as perfect "Candy" is by itself enough to make WORD UP Cameo's best studio album by far, but the other five extended funk-rockers are up to those high standards as well. More than any funk band who had been releasing albums before Prince blew up in the early '80s--and that includes the P-Funk crew--Cameo understood how to update their sound without losing their essential funk, adding synths and drum machines to their bass-driven rhythms and coming up with minor masterpieces like the self-evident "Fast, Fierce, and Funny" in the process.

• Format: CD
• Genre: R&B