Act Like You Know

Turner Brothers: Running In The Rain and Cause I Love You
From: Act 1 (1974)

Epic funk today with The Turner Brother’s long forgotten gem Act 1, a great record that was for a long time best known for being stupidly hard to get hold of. However, praise be, it has now been reissued and the quality of this album is now available for all to hear.

Beginning life as a Doo Wop band in the late fifties the group moved with the times and embraced the psychedelic soul of the seventies with relish. Ironically, considering how damn hard it is to get your hands on an OG copy of this album, the Turner Brothers were reasonably large movers in soul music at the time of it’s release, touring with The Chi-Lites and The Ohio Players among others.

First up from the album we have Running In The Rain – a song title somewhat appropriate for the miserable weather currently assaulting what should be the British summer. Starting with a fuzzy explosion and shrieking trumpets, the boys show they mean business. The track soon settles down into an excellent piece of instrumental funk with it’s chorus of horns and strings laying down funk on the grandest of scales. However what makes the track stand out is the brilliantly boppy synthesizer noises layered over the top of the groove.

The brilliant Cause I Love You shows off the groups vocal skills with harmonies similar to the seventies releases of the Jackson 5. However this is a real brooder of a track with a killer breakdown halfway through, it’s tight stripped down sound off set by swirling space age synthesizers and the sweetness and light of the vocals. One of those tracks you don’t ever want to end…….