Uneven is the word for the Ohio Players. They're a progressive soul group in that they write and produce their own material, but they've got roots in Fifties doo-wop. Their sound is spaced on the surface, owing more to Hendrix than to Sly, but underneath the rhythm instruments play tightly, sometimes rigidly. As a unit they play pulsating dance music with stylistic unanimity but guitarist Sugarfoot, who looks something like a cross between Jimi and Bugs Bunny, seems to be their only distinctive instrumental soloist. He combines the choked riffing we've come to expect in this kind of music with unusual agility and a lot of imagination, jazz chops if you will.

Fire is both more focused and more schizoid than previous efforts. It can be divided pretty evenly between floating ballads ("Together" and "It's All Over") and burners ("Fire," "Smoke," "Runnin' from the Devil" and "What the Hell") with "I Want to Be Free" falling somewhere in between. The group production is much improved. "Over" combines Fifties elements — triplet piano, riffing background vocals — with a more modern, ethereal bridge and a second backup chorus in the falsetto range, overlapping with the first as well as with the lead. "Smoke" is dissonant, with blaring horns, juxtaposed lines in different keys, an assured guitar solo and various phasing effects, all riding over a very basic backbeat. The drum sound throughout is heavy, penetrating and exceptionally well defined. A less-than-perfect but intermittently intriguing LP, then, by a bizarre but professional group. (RS 180)

BOB PALMER