How does one taste music ? Hearing music is evident. Feeling music is equally evident for all those funkateers out there. Even seeing music is possible in a thriving live performance. But to taste music ? Now, please don't bite in the first record you can lay your hands on. Chances are it will be too fat for your health. No, here's how to do it : you need
-one or more Kleeer albums ('Winners', 'Intimate Connection', 'License to Dream',...)
-a set of woofers (visit nearby audio shops for extra subs)
-a box of chocolate ice cream
I think everybody will know what to do with the first two items -except for those idiots who put the record in their microwave and use the woofers to pile their nude magazines on- but what about the ice cream ? Well, if you melt the ice cream and have some Black Venus slowly poor it into your mouth while you lay your ear against the speakers and watch everything in the room vibrate to the drumbeat, then you hear, feel, see and taste music ! At least, that's how Woody Cunningham and his band Kleeer made the track 'Taste the Music'. I think.

'The Universal Robot Band', heard of ? Anyone ? Guess not. It wasn't exactly a band, but a studio project (attentive readers now ask 'why did they put 'band' in their name ?') before the members formed a band which didn't had 'project' in its name, no, but had -quite intruigingly- three e's in its name : 'Kleeer' was born in 1976 and ready to rock the world with music so fat they had to press the records 3 inches thick to make the grooves deep enough in order contain Kleeer-bass. Fasten your speakers.

Seven albums between 1976 and 1986 on which Woody showed his skills with the vocoder while the rythm section took care of the heaviest drum beats ever, that is the musical funk heritage Kleeer left us today and those were the two elements what made Kleeer famous on the scene and partly made The Freestyle Crew what it is today : deep. Tracks like 'Tonight' with an intro that cuts right through your skin, straight into your nervous system and the previously mentioned blend between spacy and heavy : 'Taste The Music', those are tracks who've stood the test of time. We all forget about the childish ballads and poppy guitars : like with almost all funk bands, being selective is necessary to understand why fresh people go wild over and over again on just huring 'wwwhhaaaiiinngg'. Just cut the crap and rock the bass, baby. Kleeer is feeding the woofers and we all know what that means...

When he wasn't writing funk history with his band Kleeer, Woody Cunningham also played on sleazy disco classics like Candido's 'Thousand Finger Man' or 'Dancing and Prancing'. Very Lofty, indeed. More recently he released 'Delicious' in a real Kleeer style and 'Ooh with you' on which he 'ooohwed' with ex-Kleeer member Paul Crutchfield. His latest release is the solo-album 'Never Say Never' by which you finally understand where the title on top of this table came from. Kleeer enough.

(Outspan, 1998)