BSPH: Mutiny - Lump

"Lump" is a song by the renegade P-Funk outfit Mutiny. It was released in 1979 on an album "Mutiny on the Mamaship" and later in 1980 it was included on a soundtrack to William Friedkin's sleazy Al Pacino Undercover Cop Gay flick "Cruising".

The song is rip-roaring, jumping, bouncing flashy disco-funk stomp tailor-made for relentless filthy gorgeous sticky smoky club raves. It is a party tune from a bizarro dimension. "Lump" is vertigo-inducing, fainting, whirling, twirling, whooping, whipping, wham-bop-zing that wastes no beat to rock the floor. This makes it a perfect fit for the sleazy backgrounds of "Cruising".

Musically, it is a distillation of P-Funk classic sound neatly tied with straightforward angular but feverish disco beats. In fact, the band's entire ouevre can be best described by Futurama's Bender aphorism "I'm going to make my own Lunar Park, with blackjack and hookers!". "Lump" is probably illustrates that the best.

"Lump" is fluid, quicksilver-like nondescript tangled mass of a song. It is pure phenomenon of groove - none of the song's elements make sense outside of it.

The arrangement of the song is built around jumpy bass line and bizarrely straight drums. The drums are going 4x4 but it feels weirdly contorted and even syncopated at times. It seems like the bass is gasping and gulping and alternately gagging and choking due to extensive chorus effects. In the same time the drums are marching along as if nothing happens albeit they sound as if they were actually stumbling and falling from a staircase but still somehow managing to keep up the rhythm.

Guitars and synths adds a couple of layers to the song. In fact, it is "Lump"'s secret weapon. Intricate guitar lines tangle and meander along in disjointed strands. They don't do much, but their slight bubbling on the surface adds to the groove. Synth go the other way. They do some bouba kiki zigzag waltzing around bass and drums like a pack of wolves. It is very disorienting to listen. Then comes the chorus and the entire song turns into a heart beating scared to near death. The shift is astounding in its smoothness.

Lyrically, the song is barely coherent, totally incomprehensible narrative about the character known as lump (which is nondescript mass of substance without a definite shape). She's sitting in a bog and getting piranhas confused. It seems like she had a rollercoaster ride of a life before getting there but the details are spotty. In fact, the majority of words are there simply because they sound right. Given that most of them are pronounced with sophisticated alien lisp - it is hard to get through the lyrics during a listen. It makes a good case of a sound poem hidden in a song.

"Lump" is one of those songs that occurs like a spark and blasts its way through the brain leaving a lasting impression. It is just a good song put together well. Because of that it works. It manages to generate momentum and keep it until the end.