A while back I was pining for the work of Jesse Rae; the distinctive Scotsman in a kilt, battle helmet, and usually wielding a 5 ft claymore. I first encountered him with airplay of his early music videos in the early 80s and his penchant for synth-driven funk was perhaps the last thing anyone would have expected then, but he came by his ties to the genre honestly, with hookups with the P-Funk family of all-stars when he found himself across the Atlantic and in Cleveland in the late 70s. The late, great Bernie Worrell was a frequent creative foil so you know the man brought serious goods to the table. As if that weren’t funk credential enough, he was also tight with Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound crew. They formed the band Strange Parcels in the mid-90s and had lots of crossover in Rae’s solo career.

Now, a quartet of Jesse jams [surely, you saw that coming?] are being issued on 12″ next week as July 2nd sees the release of “Almost Ma Sel Again” on the Glaswegian label Pace Yourself. The disc sports three cuts that were originally on the ground-breaking “Compression” album of 1996 wherein Rae took advantage of bleeding edge ISDN telecom technology to record an album virtually with players thousands of miles away with the host studios having ISDN hookups. As the “Compression” album was issued in ’96, of course it was CD only, so three of these songs have never been issued on a record before. The final one had, but it’s always a red-letter day when one can hear the original 12″ mix of the monster cut “Rusha” one more time.

Jesse Rae: Almost Ma Sel Again – SCOT – EP [2024]

1. Almost Ma Sel Again
2. Virtual ‘U’
3. Rusha
4. Switch Tae U

Pile-driving Keith LeBlanc drum patterns anchored the paradoxically ethereal SynthFunk of the title track. I loved how Rae included Scottish historian Nigel Tranter reading an article as an abstract textural element. There was enough dub technique applied to his voice so that if one attempted to actually follow what he was saying that it would just barely come to nought. It reminded me of how Robert Fripp used to drop lecture tapes of his guru J.G. Bennett into his solo material during the Drive To 1981®. As the slinky synth bass rose in the mix, the smooth backing vocals heralded the artiste himself at roughly the song’s midpoint. There was so much tremolo on the song’s guitar solo it ended up sounding like an electric piano given the treatment.

“Virtual U” began with sound bites of Bernie Worrell before an insane sampled gunshot rhythm hook jolted us into the song. The slow tempo track really played like something that would have been on a contemporaneous Bootsy Collins album of the time. The lyrics were meta contextual on the whole playing remotely over the network concept that was the point of the “Compression” album, but make no mistake…this was primarily a bedroom jam such as to make Bootsy green with envy. There were some connections one didn’t need an ISDN line for. The sweet backing vocals juxtaposed against the lurching beat and sampled hooks attained an otherworldly vibe. Helped immeasurably by the distant peals of acid guitar that drifted throughout the song like violet vapor. Did I invoke Bootsy Collins? Let’s not forget Prince as well. This track sounded like it was really one left off of the concurrent “Gold Experience” album by TAFKAP. Yes, that powerful.

The bilingual Soviet Funk of “Rusha” never fails to excite with its ferociously lurching heavy synth beat, coupled with the slow, methodical tempo of the number. Bernie Worrell’s contrapuntal synth flourishes showed off his classical technique even as Rae demonstrated his command of the Russian language. If ever there was a song with one foot in the Apollonian and one in the Dionysian, it was this one. Worrell’s synth string stylings in the climax were chef’s kiss perfection. As we hear below.

We heard one half of a DJ phone interview with Rae in dub at the start of “Switch Tae U.” Then another voice announced “Switch To You, first overdub, Mr. Bernie Worrell, split.” Then we heard Worrell’s clavinet and the swing beats of the track leading the way for Rae’s smooth vocal. With surgical interjections of a single rhythm guitar lick to heighten the pressure every bar or two. The lyric had “my MCI I switch to you” as the chorus as Rae cannily got MCI to finance the ISDN recordings by way of cross-promotion!

It warms my heart to see that labels are still licensing Rae’s vibrant music in the next millennium. As George Clinton once said, “Funk is its own reward,” and this material hasn’t dated a moment. It still throbs with a vitality not dissipated by the passage of over 40 years for “Rusha” and nearly thirty for the other tracks. And how appropriate that the fiercely Scottish Rae, who has run for a seat in Parliament on three occasions, linked up with another member of Parliament to craft this accomplished music. If you need to add this to your own private Record Cell, the EP will set you back £15.00 with the CD quality DL a third of that. DJ hit that button for the pre-order!

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