Dâm-Funk
Invite the Light
STONES THROW
5/10
Invite the Light’s fifth track “Surveillance Escape” chronicles the radio chatter of agents “666” and “69” as they tail Dâm-Funk himself on a high speed chase through the freeways of Los Angeles, barking commands back and forth over screeches of walkie-talkie hiss. “Do not lose sight of him,” they repeat, lest he “infiltrate the music scene with funk”—all on top of a four-bar instrumental loop of bubbling acid bass, 808 percussion, and lush synth pads. In the song’s final moments, we hear Funk’s voice at last as he sneers, “Illuminati: you can’t get me.”
The track—at over six minutes in length—is emblematic of the whole record. At its best, it’s fun, a bit silly, and charmingly self-indulgent. But unfortunately, like a car chase, most of the twenty songs on Invite the Light begin with the promise of excitement, but eventually succumb to their own aimlessness and ultimately go nowhere.
