Phat Phunktion first came together back in 1996 when its members were still University of Wisconsin-Madison music students, drawn together by a common enthusiasm for 60’s soul and 70’s funk. On June 2 the group will release its latest recording which captures one of the band’s signature animated live performances. Live at the High Noon will be available as a CD or download and also on Blu-ray. Today we premiere the video for the rousing instrumental “”Don’t Destroy the Funk.”

Phat Phunktion frontman Tim Whalen tells Relix, “For years, Al [Falaschi, saxophone] had a riff he would play at soundcheck, and every time he played it I’d say ‘we’ve got to put that into something.’ So, I decided to start writing an instrumental around that riff. I remember coming up with the grooves for the A section and Bridge, then Al and I collaborated on the arrangement and structure. We also had a lot of fun writing the horn parts for this one. There’s always two guarantees on this tune when we play it live. One, Turbo [Darvonte “Turbo” Murray] will always kill it on his drum feature, and two, the bridge will always get me fired up!”

The track listing for Live at the High Noon appears below the video.

Live at the High Noon