Mad Dog Fire Department “Cosmic Funk”

“Cosmic Funk” by the Mad Dog Fire Department is one of the distinguished few last records put out on the historic TK Disco label before it went bankrupt.

The distinct funky soul of the era that birthed it shines like the mirrors on a disco ball. But the track is just as at home as a backyard bbq in Miami with everybody dancing, ribs on the grill, cold drinks in a cooler, and purple smoke in the air.

It’s a track that Henry Stone picked up in a deal at the time with some other record heads and now appears on his “Twelve Inch Disco Classics from the 70s, Vol. 7,” which is full of deep and classic grooves you can’t find just anywhere.

Who were Mad Dog Fire Department? Well, it’s hard to say really. In 1979 they saw release on the Shield Records label, a TK subsidiary. Their track “Cosmic Funk,” sounds like what Martians might listen to in the Bahamas.

There is a distinct island groove in the choppy guitars, perfect syncopation, thumping bass lines, tribal calls, and use of repetition in the groove.

It is a distinctly futuristic sound even today.