No Time To Burn

Black Heat: You Should've Listened and Super Cool
From: No Time To Burn [Atlantic, 1974]

So, first off, apologies for the break in posting, what can I say? Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that so hopefully you'll welcome me back with open ears to the lip smacking funk of Black Heat.

Rudely ignored for most of the past 25 years, the band are probably most famous these days for their sample friendly self titled debut. However I've always had a very large soft spot for the band's second release, No Time To Burn, which seems to be the moment where the band truly found a balance between the vocals and the grooves. It's one of those special records that appeared in that period where funk and disco were positive influences on each other and before the scene collapsed under the weight of its need to boogie.

You Should've Listened is everything that was right about dancefloor funk in the early seventies channelled into five and a half minutes. Starting with a brilliant horn led riff the track builds on it's bass and harmonies into the kind of song that sends the right dancefloor into spasms. Love the wilding out guitar in the last section too.

I've said it before but it bears repeating, you're always on highly dangerous ground when you record a song with cool in the title but, with Super Cool, I think Black Heat pull it off. More downtempo than much of the album, the band take a sweet groove and just run with it to it's natural conclusion. I can never say no to this kind of organ work either. Splendid stuff.

Good news for once as well, both this and the band's debut are available as a double reissue and I can whole heartedly recommend picking them up. So go on then.