by Stewart MasonThe debut album by the soon-to-be venerable Fatback Band is a mostly instrumental -- minus some "What's Going On"-style exclamations and raps in the background -- collection of pure funk grooves. More in the Curtis Mayfield vein of slick and nimble dancefloor fillers than loose Parliament/Funkadelic jams, these nine tracks are concise -- only one track breaks the four-minute barrier -- and tightly constructed, with little room for exploratory soloing or aimless vamping. The key tracks, however, are the three non-originals, cover choices that might surprise some folks who have never heard, say, Isaac Hayes' Black Moses: the Fatback Band strips down any cheesy sentimentality from Glen Campbell's Jimmy Webb hit "Wichita Lineman," Bread's wimp-rock classic "Baby I'm-A Want You," and even the moldy oldie "Green Green Grass of Home," purifying the tunes down to their melodic basics and transforming them into absolutely ravishing dee...