Lost 1980 recording emerges from legendary Stockton, CA funk band 9th Creation

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Lost 1980 recording emerges from legendary Stockton, CA funk band 9th Creation

The Chicago-based label, Past Due, has just released a lost album from one of the greatest funk bands of the seventies, the 9th Creation.

Founded in 1970 by A.D. Burrise and led by his brother J.D. Burrise, the 9th Creation came out of the small central valley California town of Stockton. During the seventies, this pivotal group made their mark with three monumental, and now very collectable, funk albums including Bubble Gum (1975), Reaching For The Top (1977), and Superheroes (1979). With these releases, the 10-12 piece band gained a “religious-like following” by fusing the raw West Coast soul sound with heavy-hitting funk, disco grooves, and early boogie influences.

In 1980, the band began working on a new record in a studio out of the neighboring town of Modesto, CA. The group choose this recording studio because it was much cheaper than it’s competitors. Weeks into the session, the band discovered that the reason they received such a great deal was because the studio was run by drug dealers. This revelation came to light after their was a major raid. Unfortunately during this raid, the studio’s master tapes were permanently confiscated by the DEA. Luckily, one of the band’s horn players (trumpet, trombone, and saxophones) Mike Micenheimer saved cassette mix-downs of some of the recordings from that session.

Now 39 years later, these recordings finally see the light of day with an official release, titled A Step Ahead through Past Due Records. Even though there are a few small moments, due to the source material, where the audio is a little spotty, this newly released recording lives up to the brilliance of the three previous albums. The seven-track thirty-seven minute recording is strong from start-to-finish, extremely funky and primed perfectly for the dancefloor.

Even though we will never know what more could of come out of these recordings if the band were given the opportunity to complete their sessions, however still in the end, A Step Ahead is a timeless and brilliant collection of music that only adds to the group’s strong legacy.