The Pinch: Shot Out Vinyl 12″ The Pinch

Another PPU sure shot. The Pinch is one of the rarest talk box funk 45s in the world, and not only does Peoples Potential give it a re-release, they also remaster it and put this joint on 12″ for the first time! Take a listen and you’ll see why this is considered one of the most sought-after vocoder jams of all times. Here’s the story behind this record courtesy of PPU: “It all started in a local club in Pine Bluff Arkansas where Mojo and Spider played in their first group together Zodiac in the mid 70s. Spider played lead guitar, and Mojo held the brass section. Sam “Spider” Rice was also the music director for a vocal group called “La Pinch” which included vocalist Gary Pinchom (Pinch). As the 80s approached La Pinch was looking for a new sound. After relocating to the East Coast “The Pinch” was born. New York and Jersey was quite a change. Spider wanted to write a song to address the drug abuse he was seeing all around him. “Shot Out was a street term we used to describe someone with an excessive drug habit”, recalls Spider. “We built a voice box from a horn driver, a couple of switches, and some tubing”. They had some money stashed from a Zodiac gig and picked up a Prophet 5 and Roland Drum machine. After recording the track in 1981, the song was mastered at the legendary Power Station in NYC (famous for the CHIC sound). That would prove to be the major limitation for the release, since they were out of money now and could only afford to press 200 copies of the 7″. Distributed in Texas and locally on the east coast, “Shot Out” would be the only release from The Pinch. UNTIL NOW! Re-mastered for the first time on 12″ vinyl, this 80’s funk masterpiece is finally back on wax.” Recommended.

• music label: Peoples Potential Unlimited 2010

reviewed by snackmaster 03/2010