The Numero Group table at the Pitchfork Music Festival's Record Fair was one of the sweetest, most financially devastating, booths I've ever browsed. Dozens of Numero reissue vinyls were to be had for cheap (We picked up Soul Messengers From Dimona, Don't Stop:Recording Tap, and Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal), but perhaps the biggest get was a pre-release cassette copy of Brotherman, the soundtrack to a movie that was never filmed. From the Numero site:
In classic Numero fashion, before even one foot of film was shot, the plug was pulled and the movie was cancelled. Dragged around for 30 years by songwriter and arranger Wolfolk, the tapes of his life’s work have finally been mixed, and the soundtrack album has been augmented to include two orchestrated instrumentals intended for the film. Having no stills from the film to work with, the Numero Group tasked Minneapolis’ Burlesque of North America to paint a cover that could withstand the scrutiny of any blaxploitation poster geek.The Final Solution's soundtrack is '70s street soul at its finest; funky, grimey, ass rattling and smooth as butter. Of course, Numero Group says it best:
He was a pusher that became a preacher. A gangster pimp serving soup from the trunk of his Coup Deville. A mutant cross between Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. Everyman, our man on the street, Brotherman. Continuing a tradition that began with Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, and culminated with Shaft and Superfly, Brotherman was a blaxploitation film set to hit screens in 1975. Prior to the script being finished, the producers commissioned an original soundtrack to be performed by The Final Solution, a fledgling vocal group from Chicago’s west side.Brotherman sits in Tape 2 of our stereo, always accessible when doing dishes or trying to get your swerve on. If couch listening isn't enough, Koushik made a few of us very happy when he dropped "Theme from Brotherman" last night at APT.
Final Solution- Theme from Brotherman
Final Solution- Never Coming Back Again
