Though Off White was released in the same year as Buy,it points to a new trajectory for James Chance. Renaming himself JamesWhite (in a snotty white-boy parody of James Brown), he recast TheContortions as The Blacks and veered towards the kind ofslickly-produced funk-disco hybrid that had already become a Ze Recordstrademark. The album opens with two new versions of "Contort Yourself,"the first a radically reworked and extended mix by August Darnell ofcartoon Latino-disco gangsters Kid Creole and the Coconuts. Darnell'sversion of the song subtracts the dissonance and adds a loopedbassline, uptempo hi-hats and full-on disco throb. This could be adancefloor classic in any era. The rest of the material on Off Whiteis engrossingly unorthodox, fearlessly matching White's asymmetricalfree-jazz with smoothed-out NYC disco sleaze. "Stained Sheets" is abizarre dialogue between White and an anonymous woman enraptured in herown sexual malaise, over a druggy, slow-cooked improvisation. There'snothing more embarassing than pandering white-boy versions of islandmusic (see Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot"), but "(Tropical) HeatWave" somehow sidesteps the usual pitfalls, mostly because of White'sblazing saxophone solos. The two parts of "Almost Black" act as adancefloor-friendly showcase for White's unstoppably intense soloing,as anonymous female voices admire White for being so nearly a blackman: "I love him cuz he might be white/but every time I feel thatsmack/I want him more because he's almost black." White's cavalierattitude in dealing with this kind of edgy race material (other songtitles: "White Savage," "Bleached Black" and "White Devil") isrefreshingly provocative, especially in our current social climate ofgutless, politically-correct racial dialogue. The tastiest bonus trackon the disc is "Christmas With Satan," a 10-minute narrative aboutYuletide with the devil that deliriously quotes classic holiday tunessuch as "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" and "Hava Nagila." For sheerinventiveness and off-kilter funkiness, Off White is without compare in the James Chance catalog, and this disc is far and away my favorite of the bunch.Read More
