DRUGS

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TRANSLATIONS OF THE FRENCH REVIEWS:
DJ
"Drugs: the Trap"
Woodstock is over. But Drugs was born there nevertheless. From the meeting of two musicians, Robert "Chicken" Burke and Michael "Clip" Payne, came the clear-cut ideas for their debut album. The first is a drummer for spot gigs (Dave Mathews) the second a freelance vocal arranger (from Jordy to Alex Gopher). This album ends their search for full-time jobs. Joined by four independent musicians, including legend Gary "Doo-Wop" Shider, interpreter of the big hits of Parliament/Funkedelic (such as "Mothership Connection"), they follow a subversive policy: edgy topics ("Everything others want to sweep under the carpet, we sing about," laughs Clip, also a former member of the P. Funk crew) and extended unexpected jams ("We do our songs from A-Z but if we decide that M should last twenty minutes, we go there," crows Chicken). True instigators, they preferred to leave the U.S. and sign with Loik Dury's young French label Kraked. Their first album resurrects the sound and the spirit of the Clinton period bands of the early 1970s, which were defined by a mixture of soul and rock. With frenzied guitars, explicit lyrics, and layered vocals, everything is arranged so that we quickly become addicted.
INROCKUPTIBLES
DRUGS: A Prescription for Mis-America
(Kraked/Discograph)
The meeting of a combative funk and a laid-back psychedelicism. A Prescription for Mis-America lives up to its title. You know some of the doctors in this excellent cross-generational group: three of them held long-time positions at the private psychiatric clinic of P. Funk, from Funkedelic to Parliament. It's the most experienced that produce the best soul. Moreover, they obviously took the medicine chest when they left. Thus, we have Drugs. Rooted in Woodstock: this sound is not new. Sobered up and mellowed out by the haze and the homeboys, their P-Funk has decided to make love here, not war. Drugs, as their name indicates, distorts perceptions and scrambles reality. We are at a Grateful Dead concert. No, a rave by Tranquility Bass. Or a show organized by N.E.R.D. It's a party in any case, where sounds and eras mix willy-nilly with the gleeful yet grave indecency, which will forever be the hallmark of soul-music -- whether produced manually or by machine. This soul is too slick and embellished to belong to the age of Sly Stone and Alex Gopher, and much too supple and loose to be stuck in the retro rut of Prince. Under the influence of Drugs, we continues to dream: we believe that an album so exceptionally smooth and cool comes from the Neptunes. Or is sung by Beck. Or rapped by Mos Def. Who is the idiot who sings Drugs Don't Work?
(Benjamin Montour)
Le Monde
The Prescription for Mis-America
Dedicated to the resurrection of the psychedelic soul sound from the end of
the1960s, this American group has assembled a collection of distortion pedals, analogue keyboards, spangled costumes, and falsetto vocals. It's hard to know how to take pieces which straddle the line between homage and parody. Certain titles fall flat but others ("Mis-America," "I Wonder If," "Cold Hearted World"), reinvest the throbbing sounds inspired by Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, and Isaac Hayes with class and humor, managing to recall their style without plagiarizing it. Not surprising when it is known that behind Drugs hide Clip Payne (vocals) Gary "Starchild" Shider (guitar), and Lige Curry (bass), all former members of the Funkadelic, Parliament, and P Funk All Stars galaxy.
CD Kraked, Distributed by Discograph
Open Mag
Drugs: Good for You
Pillars of the historic monument P-Funk, (a contraction of Parliament and Funkadelic), Americans Gary "Starchild" Shider (vocals/guitar),Lige Curry (bass) and Clip Payne (vocals/keyboard), are back in action and coming to us direct from Woodstock. Collaborating with these veterans are Robert "Chicken" Burke (drums, vocals), Joey Eppard (guitar/vocals), who have played on the albums of Alex Gopher and Cosmo Vitelli, and Adam Widoff (guitar) part of Lenny Kravitz's first group.
These living legends are still provocative enough to give the finger to American puritanical attitudes; the name of their group couldn't be more explicit. They made their first French appearance at Transmusicales 2001. A mesmerizing performance was made even more tantalizing in retrospect by repeated delays in the release of their first album, which finally ended up on Kraked, a new French label, created by Loic Dury, the producer of Nova and figure of the 90s hip hop scene. Here's the general information!
For the uninitiated, Drugs will quickly make you a surfer of the vintage wave. We will allow them their opportunism, so well do they get into that authentic groove which belongs only to the Blacks, that psychedelic old skool soul of which they are the legitimate trustees. A special word to all addicts of scorching instrumentals, chrome guitars, and oscillating basses, and a notification - Various Magazines