After a few tumultuous years that thinned out their ranks, Norwood Fisher and Fishbone return with their strongest recording in nearly a decade.  They're joined this time by a pile of big-name "psychotic friends," including Flea, Billy "Bass" Nelson, George Clinton, and Rick James--so you know the funk is going to hit the fan.

The rump-shaking grooves kick off with a three-bass attack from Flea, Billy Bass, and Norwood on "Shakey Ground."  Flush those Spinal Tap "Big Bottom" comparisons from your mind--although this bottom is big and round, and Norwood's playing is still identifiable as ever.  His fat, muscular Warwick Thumb 5-string tone--scooped-out mids with a pinch of grind--cuts through the band's guitars and horns, not to mention Flea's Modulus and Billy's B.C. Rich.

One of Fishbone's strengths is its unique genre-collisions--you can hear the P-Funk, Sly Stone, ska and reggae, and Zeppelin-style rock in Norwood's lines.  How many gospel-inspired rave-ups can you name that are piloted by a funky Ovation 5-string acoustic bass guitar ("Karma Tsunami")?  And Fisher is all over the B string on tracks like the slow ska tune "The Suffering" and the dark "AIDS and Armageddon."   Then there's the cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "Everybody Is a Star," which explodes from Larry Graham's gentle line into 16th-note warp-speed mania.  All of these grooves inspire _movement_--and if there's a cure for that, I don't want it.

   -Greg Olwell