Camouflage Disco Fever

Without any musical prejiduce intended there's little doubt that,artistic merrit aside the fate of Rufus and Chaka apart from eachother was very unbalanced commercially:Chaka became a huge solo star,Rufus stiffed without her. Spending much of the late 70's and early 80's on less then friendly terms due to these differences Chaka confessed in her biography  Chaka! Through the Fire  that she wasn't even in the studio with the band during this recording. That history makes itself felt load and clear on the back cover from this;you can see it clearly among the Amazon image photos:Chaka is the only one smiling while the male members of the group where some of the most unhappy expressions I've ever seen on any album cover art. All this comes as such a surprise when you really dig into the music of this album. You'd think with all the internal strife within the band this would be a low energy effort. But every party involved gives it there all on every level. The album actually has a pretty comfortable set of session people musically:this album is a self produced effort but between the efforts of Greg Phillinganes,Paulinho Da Costa,engeineer Bruce Swedien and...well the talents within Rufus itself this album is actually a lot more varied and experimental than the Quincy Jones produced outing  Masterjam  was a few years before this. The first four songs are a really nice uptempo treat with the bands own funk/pop/rock sound all out on "Better Together" and "Secret Friend".On another note "Jigsaw" POUNDS the funk right out of the pocket as Bobby Watson and John Robinson hold the whole thing right down with the rhythm section! Hawk's keyboards similarly bring "Music Man (The DJ Song)" to life. Chaka's huge showcases vocally here are the ballads such as "True Love","Sharing Your Love" and "Losers In Love"-yeah the theme all seems somewhat similar but fact is these well crafted smooth grooves only get better with repeated listenings,especially if you hear them in CD quality as opposed to the scratchy old vinyl copy of this I used to have.There are two songs here that really take a lot of chances. The rhythmic and vocal varriations,from jazzy to funky to...well near reggae on "Quandary" are a potent reminder of the great sense of musical juxtaposition in funk and R&B that sort of got lost after the disco era;it actually something that would'nt have sounded out of place during the  Ask Rufus  and is an easy creative highlite. "Lilah" is an uptempo variation of the same sort of groove and Tony actually gets a chance to sing the main lead on the song which is alternately very poppy with this polyrhythmic jazz-funk break. "Highlight" closes the album on this great,slow churning rhythm funk note where guitar riffing of many different kinds share the harmonic space with Chaka leaping up and around them as if she's actually recording with the musicians,even if in rare case she isn't. Even though one music critic apparently described this recording as "drek" that it is not! Over repeated listenings this album will reveal itself to be the potent part of Rufus & Chaka's music catalog that it is.

I'm an avid CD collector, which means I know (or so I thought) the ins and outs of purchasing and finding them. However, only this year did I realize how valuable import CDs can be. With imported CDs, you can have access to music that is either out of print and unavailable in CD or MP3 form in the United States (both true for this album). Although these import discs lack liner notes (I love to own and read them) you trade a high-quality disc with IMPRESSIVE sound quality. I have to stress this, the sound quality of these Japanese discs are next to none and put American remastering to shame. Everyone reviewing this agrees.On to the actual music: Camouflage should please any Rufus and Chaka Khan fan. At this point, Chaka's career was in full flight, but she allegedly came back to the group to crank out a label mandated album. I've listened to this album for a while and recently learned that she recorded this album physically away from Rufus. You couldn't really tell that though, her vocals (though slightly produced) are in sync and energized as ever. The Rene & Angela contributions (Secret Friend & Highlight) are fun and engaging. The one true ballad (True Love) is up there with "Best of Your Heart", "Your Smile" and "Magic in Your Eyes" as a good Rufus ballad.I've underrated Chaka Khan as a songwriter because she gets at least one write/cowrite per Rufus album she contributes to. Here she gets two (!) and they are great. "Jigsaw" simply kicks you in the face with its groove without apology, "Quandary" is an arresting half reggae song with different tempo changes throughout. Lalomie Washburn (who also writes/cowrites one song per Rufus album) delivers "Better Together", a fast-paced scorching number. Some of the other songs I have not mentioned aren't bad (there isn't a bad song on the record) but they don't stand out like the others.For my money, this is leagues better than Rufus & Chaka Khan's previous effort, Masterjam. Qunicy Jones really went overboard producing that one. If you are a Rufus & Chaka Khan fan you should consider adding this to your collection before the price skyrockets. It's not their best work, not close. But it's fun and kept with the times it was released.

CLASSIC Rufus/Ms. CK😎

This was a big find for me! I have always enjoyed Rufus and Chaka Khan. Had purchased this album when it came out. Every song is great. Although the record company pulled the distribution shortly after the release, they wiped it out as if it never existed. So if you didn't know about it, you would not get the opportunity to enjoy some great music. The group split up after this and they each went their own way. I really miss that connection. Fortunately, someone in Japan picked this up, remastered it, and it is better on CD than vinyl or tape. I spent a lot, but it was worth it! 👍

My Rufus collection is complete?I have all of thier albums?know I can make my Rufus essential of all their music featuring Chaka khan? Assume group?

You get it on digital officially and it's decently priced.

Great!

Long lost gem of an album!!!!!

これで全部揃いました。

永年探していました。輸入盤とかでも出会えませんでした。LPをもっていましたがCDになっていなかった。聞いてみるとディテールまでよく覚えていると自分に感心。やっぱり古さは感じますが、ノリノリです。

4曲目、ジェリー・ヘイのホーンにしびれます。勿論アルバムとしてはいい出来ですが、この曲だけでもこのCDを買う価値はあります。

Formidable