Come Into Knowledge With Ramp

RAMP: "I Just Love You" and "Look Into The Sky"
From: Come Into Knowledge (Blue Thumb, 1977)

Well for my first post at my new home I thought I better start with an undisputed funk great - Roy Ayers Music Productions. A collective which lasted the grand total of one album, Come Into Knowledge, they still left an undeniable legacy behind them due to the subsequent rediscovery of the album by the beat junkie brigade.

While boasting that distinctive blissed out sound of Roy that I've already admitted to being a big fan off in the past, the collective really displays something different from his normal sound with the addition of the two vocalists, Sharon Matthews and Sibel Thrasher. Before writing this post I did my homework and found out both Soulsides and Moistworks covered RAMP in December but I think I'm safe as I'm putting up two of the lesser known tracks from the album, lesser known but just as good as the more famous Daylight and Everybody Loves The Sunshine. You can read a full biography of Roy Ayers here.

The first song, I Just Love You, features an irresistible slow groove over which Matthews and Thrasher harmonize. Add in subtle strings and a beautiful bridge and the song is almost complete. What really makes it brilliant though is the offsetting of the harmonies with the lead vocals about 1 and a half minutes in. Blissed out soul/funk at it's finest.

The second song, Look Into The Sky, once again superbly blends the harmonies of the singers with the music to create a tune where every part works towards the whole. Particular big fan of the trumpets and synthesizer sounds which can only really be described as some kind of whizzing noise. While deceptively simple on first listen, subsequent plays reveal that what seems like a simple groove actually has a much more complex sound running underneath.

Like the album as a whole, both tracks seem almost designed to be listened to through headphones, lying in a park, on a sunny summer's day. Better than any so called "chill out" album on the market.

You can get a copy of the album Do it now.