War originally featured Eric Burdon from The Animals, but by the time of this album he has left the band, leaving the central figure Leroy “Lonnie” Jordan along with others – War is one of those bands with rotating personnel over the years.
This is prog-funk, very laid back Afro-Latin beats (with all of the band credited with percussion on top of conga-player Papa Dee Allen and drummer Harold Brown), so expect a lot of slow and steady percussive mixes overlaid with organ and/or guitar grooves and minimalist vocals. Their most famous track (from a future album) is Low Rider, which is a bit more up-tempo than the tracks on here, but an indicator of the kind of sound to expect from War. Some tracks are shorter – the tale of The Cisco Kid building on a simple groove, Beetles In The Bog a funky instrumental. Longer jams include The World Is A Ghetto and City Country City.
It’s an interesting contrast between this and the previous album – while one is the music of the poor rural white folks, this is the music of poor urban black folks, but ultimately the sentiments are the same underneath. I’d like to think that the artists on Will The Circle Be Unbroken would have more in common with the artists on this album than would be apparent at first glance.
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