- Initially released in 1996, Funky Souls contrasted strikingly with Robert Hood's other material even at the time—and that difference grows more vivid yet when you compare it to what Hood has been up to in the time since then, particularly the sci-fi dystopian epic Omega. There's little in the way of concept here: It's Hood playing around with full-on disco samples, which for him was a switch in itself.
Not so much the rest of the dance-music world: The mid-'90s was a heady time for filter-disco—just ask DJ Sneak, Gusto, Daft Punk and the Bucketheads, among others. Hood, on the other hand, opted to leave the filters to others and make his mark in a more bare-knuckled way. "Funky Souls" has long been a rarity, but it returns in time for another period heavily marked by disco rediscovery, and while the twin vocal patterns on the A-side (woman: "Sisters and brothers who love each other, funky souls"; man: "It's time") nag in isolation, they twine around each other to nicely hypnotic effect.
The more instrumentally focused Club 246 remix loops a doo-doo-dooing background vocal; it's less concrete than the main mix but goes down easier. If Omega is about what lies on the other side of this life, this reissue is more about what lies on the other side of the 12-inch.
Tracklist A Funky Souls (Original)
B Funky Souls (Club 246 Mix)