Wilbur Niles
Thrust

McNeal and Niles initially recorded their first album—limited to 500 copies—in Akron Ohio in the makeshift Man-Ray studios, which also happened to double up as a car wash. Barrels of soap and detergent were rolled out of the way to make space for the band and their equipment, an unknown assortment of names from the American Midwest, and Niles’ then girlfriend Machelle McNeal recording vocals and synthesisers. Thrust exists in the blurred space between jazz, funk, soul and R&B in which many homemade recordings from the late seventies occupied, the overall sound signature not too far away from the likes of the Iowa based Split Decision Band. After having been sampled by the likes of Pete Rock, original copies of the album on the little known Tinkertoo label have gone on to fetch upwards of $1,600 at auction.

The album starts with the track Ja Ja, titled after the African king who rose from slavery to become a wildly successful broker of palm oil in the 19^th Century. The most obvious sample from the album, it is a hazy mixture of low-fi soul and slow jam grooves set to some ethereal synths and rocky progressions. Punk Funk is another album highlight, the contrast between its slick, oily bassline and Big Muff fuzz guitar encapsulate the title of the song, a blend of genres brought together with a rough, garage aesthetic almost in a similar sense to some of the west coast output: post punky in the shape of James White and the Blacks or Defunkt, albeit much slower in tempo. Quiet Isle is the most outwardly jazzy of the tracks, a low-slung and ethereal number with glinting percussion and soft washes of Wurlitzer.