Pops Mohamed - 1985 - Inner City Funk

Pops Mohamed 

1985

Inner City Funk

01. Inner City Funk 06:25

02. Movement in the City (Woza) 03:49

03. Spring Fever 03:45

Keyboards & Drum Programs - Pops Mohamed

Bass - Sipho Gumede

Hillbrow Tower gazes across a duotone Johannesburg cityscape at sunset. This is the Afrofuturist world that the music of Pops Mohamed inhabits in 1985. Following the recording of Movement in the City's Black Teardrops in 1981 and prior to the Kalamazoo EP of 1990, Inner City Funk documents Pops Mohamed's sound in the heart of 1980s. The EP features keyboards and drum programs by Mohamed with long-standing collaborator Sipho Gumede on electric bass.

Originally issued as a rare 12-inch Maxi single, Inner City Funk is part of a generation of important synth-heavy South African dancefloor releases presented in this format during the 1980s. The drum program on the title track takes inspiration from Sipho Mabuse's "Burnout" and is a cheerful companion to the iconic 1984 hit. "Movement in the City (Woza)" reflects on the integrated dark and light sides of city life while "Spring Fever" is a minimal electronic rendering of the classic marabi jazz groove.

Despite a decade-long recording career as bandleader and composer of the groups Black Disco and Movement in the City, 1985's Inner City Funk is Pops Mohamed's first release as a solo artist. Presented digitally for the first time in August 2021, it provides an important snapshot of Mohamed's continuously evolving body of work that now spans close to half a century.