Raw Funk Records - Release quality and artist profit

Raw Funk Records only did releases on CDr. I have several releases that came out through RFR and all are CDr’s.
And sometimes the scan/print they did of the cover was not the best.
But when an album is out of print and You want it on CD, then it’s better than nothing.

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Thanks for the info about CDr’s from Raw Funk.

I always been sceptical about CDr releases. But at the same time I’m all for supporting the artist, so I suppose it’s all good.

Next matter of business, since this thread has become somewhat about this:

Yes, I have to agree that this is a really amateurish, homemade release. I’ve done better myself. The inserts are of poor quality, and the tray insert is especially poorly sized, poorly cut and badly folded (not even perforated). The best thing I can say about it, is that the CD is almost silver (maybe slight tinge of green) and has printing right on the disc, giving it at least the “feel” of something professional, as superficial as that facade may be.

Are we 100% certain that the money you pay these people goes to the artists? Because if not, we really shouldn’t be paying anyone money for this caliber of production value.

I am really curious to know if this is just a re-release of HMF. Because if it is, I’m satisfied enough that this will prevent me from coveting the highly rare and expensive original album.

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Does anyone here personally know the guy who runs thefunkstore? or at least have a contact email or something? A friend and I have been trying to reach out to him through his ebay account to buy three Andre Foxxe CDs but haven’t heard back. Of course, with the pandemic going on, we can’t help but feel the worst. In all likelihood, he’s probably just closed up shop temporarily to be safe.

This then, for what it’s worth: I’d previously had a couple of very positive experiences with thefunkstore over the years, and I ordered & received Sheila Horne’s 7 Roses cd (along with a digital download of Steve Boyd’s ‘The Lost Tapes vol 1’) back in February, which came with an addtional bonus of the Brides of Funkenstein ‘Live in Houston’ & P Funk All Stars ‘Live in New Orleans 2019’ dvds. I promptly emailed my thanks for these unexpected freebies. However, a subsequent attempt to aquire a Danny Bedrosian & Secret Army cd in early March didn’t happen, and i eventually had to get a refund via paypal, with alll attempts to communicate with thefunkstore prior to this frustratingly thwarted…

Daryl Moon ran thefunkstore. I don’t have any contact with him, but you could try his fb page at facebook.com/moonthangz .

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Thank you. I sent a message. He’s definitely alive and well - posted today.

Bought three more releases from TheFunkStore and thought I should share my experiences. The releases were all by Andre Foxxe: I’m Funk and I’m Proud, Myllenium, and Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz. T Photos detailing everything can now be found on the release pages at Discogs:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/76870-Andre-Foxxe

I’d say these were even worse than what I got the last time. If you’re going to print your inserts out at home using an inkjet printer, at least make sure your printer is running on all cylinders and use some glossy cardstock - it’s not expensive. The spine of I’m Funk and I’m Proud even says “Andre Foxee” instead of “Andre Foxxe”.

The CDs are like before - “almost” silver, with actual printing on the disc, giving them the feel of something better than I could have made at home.

The quality of the sound itself is really suspect. Ghetto Pimpz seems sourced from the bandcamp tracks… which is fine with me. I was surprised that I’m Funk and I’m Proud had such a muddy sound, and even more surprised at Myllennium, which as far as I knew, had only come out on CD-R from Raw Funk Records. But both were definitely vinyl-sourced. Every track on these two albums has an unnecessarily long silence at the end, typically 8-12 seconds, during which you can hear the familiar repeating scratch as the record makes one revolution.

Also, for some unknown reason, this version of I’m Funk and I’m Proud, (whose purpose is to be an affordable re-release of the 1994 version on p-vine, with bonus tracks taken from the WeFunk version of A Dossier on Sex and Animals), has some random live version of Fox Hunt instead of the studio version, leaving you with an incomplete archive. (if anyone has that track… you know what to do!) EDIT FOR ACCURACY: I DOWNLOADED ANOTHER VERSION OF THIS ALBUM THAT APPEARS TO BE SOURCED FROM THE P-VINE CD AND IT’S THE SAME VERSION. IT MIGHT BE “FAUX” LIVE.

Being that I’m Funk and I’m Proud came out on CD, there’s no reason that he couldn’t have acquired those files in order to distribute something much better sounding. (not making a vinyl vs. CD comment here, but CDs do rip 100% cleanly, while there’s degradation in a vinyl rip). Myllennium I wasn’t sure how to judge, but as a side note, I did some research and it seems that there was definitely a CD release of this album in 1998 on P-vine:

http://bluesknk.o.oo7.jp/cdindexa.html

Andre Fox ;Myllennium ;P-VINE PCD-5380 ( June 3, 2009)

Released in 1998. This is Andre Fox’s second solo work that has been involved in the P-Funk corps, and it is a rock sound in terms of sound. Fishbone members also participated in “Into the Sun”, giving it an afro atmosphere. The subsequent “Ruffin” and “Anymore” guitars are reminiscent of Eddie Hazel. It was a little unexpected because it was a contemporary rock that sang the song, such as a slightly jazzy “Moon Jelly”, acoustically-flavored “Shane” and “Alone”. “Good for Yourself” is what makes Funk, which is so familiar, clear. It’s a sound that doesn’t require genre classification.

But it’s not on Discogs (yet). Based on these rips it certainly sounds like there’s a vinyl version in existence. I even found a (still active) link to download the album here, assumedly sourced from CD: https://morewackshit.wordpress.com/2016/05/06/andre-foxxe-myllinnium-2002/ and the mp3s at 128 kbps sound at least as good as what’s on this CD from RFR. Furthermore, there’s even another track called Laughin’ that didn’t make it onto the RFR version - not sure why. No big deal but nice to know, for any completist.

Anyway, this sounds like complaining, and it kinda is, but more than anything this is posted for posterity - if you’re a completist and you’ve gotten to the point where you want to buy Andre Foxxe albums, like me you may end up realizing you’ll never get the originals (one is overpriced, one is so rare it hasn’t hit discogs, one doesn’t exist), and you’ll be considering purchasing from RFR. I’m not saying don’t do it, just do it knowing what you’re getting.

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Thanks for sharing this. And great add on discogs!

It’s sad that these pfunk releases weren’t done in a more professional way. I know that the music is the most important. But still, for me these types of things really ruin my whole listening experience. Feels like you don’t really know what you get if you buy them.

Strange with the vinyl sourcing, can’t remember any Andre Foxxe release on vinyl (besides the A Foxxe Jam).

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Also, there’s an error in track 6 on Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz where the sound drops out for 2 and a half seconds before cutting back in. The track on bandcamp does not have this error so it’s most likely a bad burn. I emailed Daryl today; hopefully he will kindly burn and send me a new copy (assuming his source file does not have the error, which is by no means a guarantee).

Also, there’s an error in track 6 on Psychedelic Ghetto Pimpz where the sound drops out for 2 and a half seconds before cutting back in.

Aaahhhh… I was SO hoping for someone to finally confirm this. My copy has the same error (and hence I would assume all copies do).
The catastropic quality of RawFunkRecords releases is a story for another day. I need to get back to this thread later.

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Argh! Not what I was hoping to hear!!