>That begs the question - where do bands like Slave, The Dazz
>band (who toured with Pfunk), Midnight Star & Cameo fall in
>the equation?
>
>Cameo maybe runs that borderline of R&B and funk, but when
>they grooved you can't tell me it wasnt as hot as the Ohio
>Players.
>


Slave had built up their own sound with the trademarks of Steve Arrington's voice and the late Mark Leslie Adams' monsterbass thrown in the mix. And they had a legacy of groups and solo-artists evolving from them such as Steve Arrington's Hall Of Fame, Legion, Steve Washington who also started the groups Aurra, Civil Attack and he produced for George Clinton later. Those jam-patrol elements of Mark Adam's bass and Steve Arrington's voice (continued by guitarist Danny Webster) kept being essential in their sound while the vibe as a whole became somewhat more electronic. Vocally, i guess that Steve Arrington might've influenced Keith Sweat.

The Dazz Band's history goes back to earlier formations of Bell Telefunk and Kinsman Dazz. I think founder/saxophonist Bobby Harris wanted to create a sort of mix of danceable jazz (dazz). They occasionally included instrumental jams on their albums (Beyond The Horizon, T.Mata). Their horn-included work went more electronic from their Joystick album and onwards + receiving a Grammy and charting well with "Let It All Blow" a year later.

Midnight Star had some hard funk jams with horns on earlier tracks such as "Tuff" and "Hot Spot" (featuring Bootsy), and continued with electro-funk work like "Freak-A-Zoid", "Electricity" and "Operator". The sound of the mellow groove "Wet My Whistle" was continued with "Midas Touch" which had wider chart success. Brothers Reggie and Vincent Calloway wrote and produced for various artists including Solar-mates The Deele, and both appeared years later as horn-section on Bootsy's released live recording "Keepin Dah Funk Alive 4-1995".

Cameo actually broke through with the disco-flavoured track "Find My Way" which also appears on the soundtrack of "Thank God It's Friday". The track "Funk Funk" from their first album was a nod to P-Funk, but other than that, they slowly builded their own sound. Until 1981 it was the big-band and horn-driven sound which changed to a new wave-ish electronic vibe, and Larry Blackmon adopted of course Sugarfoot's yowl-growl (as did The Bar-Kays' Larry Dodson and Con Funk Shun's Michael Cooper). Horns were occasionally recorded on their albums after 1981 (Soul Army, Talking Out The Side Of Your Neck, Love You Anyway, I've Got Your Image, Word Up, Candy, You Make Me Work, Emotional Violence, Front Street, Slyde, etc).

The overall sound in funk became more electronic because of the instruments which companies designed, fabricated and provided for the music industry, and because the synth-sound became a popular fashion.


Cats i can think of who resemble the punk-funk sound:


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdu18o_80s-boogie-funky-sekou-bunch-can-t_music

^ Sekou's jam has all the ingredients: horns, synths, voice ^



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rCkYwb_c18

^ Donnie Sterling's voice comes close to Rick's. The instrumentation here is less in the punk funk style though ^



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTteWTIil0c

^ Same thing as with the Donnie Sterling example ^



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jweoJ2HMF6Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc8EdFNqq-I

I always felt that QQ's "Disco Nights" approaced that sound of Slick Rick ^