Red Not Chili Peppers: Reissues

The Red Hot Chili Peppers; Freaky Styley; he Uplift Moto Party Plan; Mother’s Milk
EMI 540 3792

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have enjoyed a long and varied career, and with the release of their two most recent albums, Californication and By The Way, the band have firmly established themselves as credible and talented chart successes. EMI seems keen to celebrate the band’s recent conquests through the reissue of.the Chili Peppers’ first four albums, originally released between 1984 and 1989. The CDs in this box set are all digitally remastered, with sleeve notes by Flea and a total of 15 bonus tracks.

The albums include, here are stylistic light years from the Chili, more recent releases, but the material is a fascinating insight into the early development of the band -and while the first two albums lack consistently strong performances, The Uplift Mofo Party Plan contains some excellent LA party funk. Mother’s Milk, meanwhile (the first album to feature John Frusciante on guitar), includes a wealth of hard funk-rock classics – Higher Ground, Subway To Venus, Nobody Weird Like Me, Taste The Pain and Johnny, Kick A Hole In The Sky. Worth investigation.

Joe Faulkner