Shock: Electrophonic Funk LP

Roger Sause (Born in Portland, Oregon) is a musician, songwriter and producer with several gold and platinum recording credits to his name. He started playing the piano as soon he was able to reach for the keys. Turned out he was a natural talent, in 1969 (at the age of 9) he was playing in kiddie garage pop bands and around 1974 (still in his teens) he was already composing his own music! Roger Sause was quickly developing his own sound and started experimenting/recording on the 4-track with local Portland engineer Doug Durbrow…Roger had written a bunch of songs that were ready to Shock the world! Roger Sause then pulled some of his buddies from High School: bassist Joe Plass, drummer Billy Bradford, lead vocalist Malcolm Noble and Terrence Wooten on guitar. Several other renowned artists (like Marlon McClain) were to be included in the recordings and live line-ups through the existence of SHOCK…but these school friends would serve as the core in the early years of the band (including Roger’s brother: Steve Sause). The band SHOCK was now ready to conquer the world…and the rest is what they call “history”. In 1979 and with the financial help and support of their families (and from Doug Durbrow who by now had started the Nebula Circle Records imprint), the band recorded a 7” EP that would serve as an introduction to the public. By handing out copies to stores, promoters, clubs and radio stations word quickly got out about this new sensation called SHOCK. Fired up by the initial success of this 7’’ EP, they released their first full-length album Electronic Funk on the Nebula Circle label in 1980 (this LP also includes longer versions of both tracks from their first 7”EP)…Roger and the band considered this small and unpretentious album just a ‘starting point’…however, no one could predict back then that this ‘first opus’ would become one of the most sought-after and highly-rated Funk albums ever! With SHOCK now having a successful album under their belts (and a hit on local radio) they got signed to Fantasy Records where they released three more albums. Several other singles/hits quickly followed and they would find themselves opening for top acts from the likes of Tina Turner, James Brown and Tower Of Power. Rolling Stone magazine picked SHOCK as one of the top ten new artists of the decade. Although the band did follow up with said subsequent hits, a constellation of factors eventually brought the first chapter of the SHOCK project to a close (there would be reunions eventually, later in the decades to follow). Band leader/ keyboardist Roger Sause, producer/guitarist Marlon Mclain, and bassist Joe Plass began writing, recording and touring with smooth jazz star Kenny G. Over time, Roger would become Kenny’s musical director. The main core-group of SHOCK are still more or less involved in the funk and R&B music scene…some members (including Roger) would eventually form the band ‘Hypertension’ who recorded for Atlantic Records. In the early 1990s Roger Sause and Marlon Mclain both moved to Los Angeles, Roger formed a live music production company called Perfect World Entertainment, and Marlon started to work with the Grammy Award winning Dazz Band, En Vogue, The Ohio Players and a myriad of other elite artists. On the recordings we are presenting you today (Electrophonic Funk from 1980) you can clearly hear the JB & Parliament-Funkadelic grooves Roger Sause and his gang were influenced by. Both critics and fans agree that the songs on this classic album truly stand out because of the raw funk-energy-field that surrounds them…The SHOCK sound was the perfect hybrid of P-Funk and heavy synth bass with falsetto vocals. This album has it all…from the melancholic modern soul in It’s Over, electrifying Boogie Disco shockers as Dance And Have Some Fun and Nite Life, all the way down to nasty P-funk influenced tracks like The Dog. This LP is a total ‘must have’ for any fan or collector! Tidal Waves Music now proudly presents the first ever vinyl reissue of this fantastic electronic funk album (originally released as a limited 1000 copies pressing back in 1980 on Nebula Circle Records). This rare record (original copies tend to go for large amounts on the secondary market) is now finally back available as a limited 180g vinyl edition (500 copies) supervised by Roger Sause himself and featuring the original artwork.