All in the Mind is the sole studio album by American house music act the Bucketheads, released in August 1995 by Big Beat Records in the United States and shortly after by Positiva Records in the United Kingdom. Unimpressed with what he perceived to be fellow producers copying his characteristic style, producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzales launched the Bucketheads as a stylistic detour to explore influences such as disco, hip hop and Latin music, hoping to throw his audience a 'curveball'. He recorded All in the Mind over a period of three days in his Brooklyn home studio, using an E-mu SP-1200 and Akai S950 for the production of beats and samples.
The record combines house music with disco and funk, and is characterised by its use of contemporary tribal beats and bass lines and 1970s-style horns and related influences. Henry Street Music released the album's first single, "Whew!", to acclaim from club disc jockeys. The second single, "The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind)", was the project's breakthrough single, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart and becoming a commercial success throughout Europe, including in the United Kingdom where it reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart. Upon release, All in the Mind reached number 74 on the UK Albums Chart, and received positive reviews from music critics. In 2000, it was named the 31st best dance album of all time in the final edition of the book All Time Top 1000 Albums.
Background
Brooklyn-based producer Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez, one half of house duo Masters at Work, founded the Bucketheads in the mid-1990s as a studio project that would allow him to fuse his populist musical influences: house, hip hop, freestyle, disco and Latin street music. Larry Flick of Billboard reported that the project emerged from a "burst of inspiration" in Gonzalez's home studio. The producer said the catalyst for the Bucketheads project and All in the Mind was his desire to change direction and "throw a curveball" to other producers who he felt were copying his sound as a solo producer and as part of Masters of Work. He stated: "I was tired of everyone being on the same tip as we were. Everything out there sounded the same. I was bored. And I thought 'Yo, I gotta come with something different'." Gonzalez also reportedly hoped to move dance music away from the emergent Eurodance genre.
After conceiving the Bucketheads project, Gonzalez recorded All in the Mind within a week, feeling he had "hit a vibe that felt right and kept going." The recording took place over three days in his home studio, Dungeon Tape. Although it had been speculated that Gonzalez created material on either an E-mu SP-1200 or an Akai MPC, Gonzalez later stated that he used an SP-1200 and an Akai S950 together in the production of his Bucketheads material. He would create rhythms and beats in the SP-1200, but as the machine did not hold lengthy samples, the S950 would instead hold the long samples which Gonzalez would then trigger using the drum machine. The producer reflected that "there was a certain vibe to the two as well. Even today you can have unlimited amounts of sample time in a machine, but it's a different vibe to those two machines." Gonzalez intended the album to be "raw and fun", and used a series of classic records as sources for samples throughout the record.
Composition
All in the Mind fuses contemporary house music with 1970s-style funk and disco funk, with many of the tracks containing modern tribal house beats and bass lines alongside prominent disco horns and funk elements. The album is largely instrumental, and also incorporates instrumental hip hop according writer Colin Larkin. Flick echoed these comments, writing that the album developed upon numerous house and hip hop ideas. Some of the material is sample-based, and incorporates cut-and-paste beats. Among the songs used as the basis for tracks on the album are Wood Brass & Steel's "Funkanova", Atmosfear's "Motivation" and Linda Clifford's "Runaway Love". Further artists sampled throughout All in the Mind include Machine, Redd Foxx and Ghanaian singer Buari.