Far Beyond

It was issued on Locksmith’s 1980 Arista release Unlock the Funk, produced by Harvey Mason with Kenny Mason credited as co-producer on the single. The track is a release-side cut from the group’s only album by the veteran musicians associated with Grover Washington Jr.’s band. Far Beyond appeared as the B-side of the UK 12-inch single for Unlock the Funk and as an album track on Locksmith’s only LP. It helped define the group’s polished disco-funk sound within the Harvey Mason-produced project that drew club and specialist attention. The track’s opening is sampled in Basement Jaxx’s 1999 hit Red Alert, which carried Far Beyond into a new generation of dance music listeners. That sample use has kept the song in circulation among DJs, crate-diggers, and modern producers.