The Meters started life as house band for Sansu Enterprises, a record label part-owned by influential musician/composer/producer Allen Toussaint. Envisaged as the New Orleans equivalent of Stax Records' Memphis-soul stalwarts Booker T and the MGs, the band laid down countless session tracks before breaking through in 1969 with Sophisticated Cissy, the first in a long string of Top-50 entries in the R&B charts.
Look-Ka Py Py (1970) captures the Meters at their assured, peacock-stepping best. Twelve neatly formed instrumentals breeze along on backbeats that encourage momentum but never force the pace. The listener hops on to a conveyor belt of funk and is carried along on an effortless journey through friendly territory, scarcely aware of the intervals between tracks.
The four-piece is democratic in its approach to melody and rhythm. Art Neville's Hammond B3 engages in a relaxed dialogue with Leo Nocentelli's guitar, while bass player George Porter Jun and drummer Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste hand out lessons in precision and economy.
The Meters draw their easy grooves from the rhythm of everyday life. The title track was reportedly inspired by the sonic pattern of the pistons in the band's van, and it's easy to imagine tracks such as Little Old Money Maker and 9 'Til 5 might have their origins in people-watching sessions as the musicians cruised the Louisiana streets.
These features have re-emerged in samples used by the likes of Run DMC, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Cypress Hill, Nas, Aaliyah and Corinne Bailey Rae, but their true mesmeric nature has not been passed down.
Visit this early Meters classic for a more revealing lesson in the genealogy of funk.
