by John Bush
Making the huge leap from Detroit-area house parties to the worldwide club scene, Detroit Grand Pubahs pulled out all the stops on their first full-length for Jive Electro. Beginning with a lush P-Funk electro sing-along of the title track, Funk All Y'all introduces an assortment of Pubah aliases -- Offbeat Killer and Evil W & Flavor Ice for two hilarious hip-hop send-ups, Percy Slade for "Plasticine Gene," Nurse Hearse for "Involvement Fluid" -- over whip-smart booty techno and primitivist electro. Reprised here, the 2000 club hit "Sandwiches" ("I will be the burger baby and you will be the bun/so make your thighs like butter, easy to spread/and we can make sandwiches on the dancefloor") sounds perfectly natural next to knowing send-ups like "One Hump or Two" and "After School Special" ("she earns a lot of cash without working"). Andy Toth and Paris the Black Fu proved themselves masters of the production game long ago, and though the music is often relegated to second-division status amidst all the role-playing, Funk All Y'all is great fun for all those bored by the scads of "intelligent" techno out there.