Consumer Guide Album

Royal Crescent Mob: Omerta [Moving Target, 1987]
Although those who think all funk sounds the same might confuse them with, er, Cameo, unlike other umpteenth generation new-wavers they have identity to burn. Say they're '60s types hip enough to have learned their wacked-out anarchy from Pedro Bell's mid-'70s psychedelic cartoons. Partly because funk gets over on a groove more muscular than they can cut and partly because they put their all into a self-manufactured EP, only "Get On the Bus," which also led the EP, and "Mob's Revenge," for an ass-grabbing asshole and featuring a rousing "You're fucked" refrain, belong on their best-of. But their identity comes this close to carrying them over the top anyway. B+