Funk hits the fan: "Super Freak" Rick James died of apparent natural causes in his Los Angeles-area home today. He was 56.

James was one of those rare, modern funksters who seemed to share sexual and psychedelic qualities with the likes of Prince, P-Funk and Bootsy Collins. His greatest hit was 1981's "Super Freak."

He was convicted in the early '90s for sexually assualting a woman during a coke binge (apparently tying her up and, along with his then-girlfriend, forcing her to perform sex acts). He later suffered a stroke.

Producer, remixer and DJ Dave Aude released a statemtent of condolence today:

"The entire music community will miss the king of punk funk. When he was on, he was on fire. One of my idols, who produced one of the best bass-lines of all time.”

On the road again: Morel's back with a new CD, Lucky Strike, scheduled for release Oct. 19 on Deep Dish's Yoshitoshi label.

We scored an advance copy and it's refreshingly live and vocal. Frontman Richard Morel brought in a band -- guitarist John Allen, drummer Rob Black, bassist Pat Flood and percussionistvocalist Dwayne Tyree -- to round out the collection of progressive house and rockist, up-tempo tunes that are also punctuated by his own deep, smokey voice. Morel is also part of a punk duo called Blowoff that's working on a CD release for next year.

Morel is best know, however, as the voice behind his well-received 2002 album, Queen of the Highway and it's breakout club hit "True," and for his earlier collaboraton with 16B on the track "Escape (Driving to Heaven)."

Washington, D.C.-based Morel is a longtime collaborator with Deep Dish, having performed on their debut album Junk Science and receiving engineering credit on their Grammy winning remix of Dido's "Thank You."

Urb-o-crats: Urb magazine is presenting a dance and hip-hop compilation to benefit The League of Pissed Off Voters and Music for America. Titled Who's America (we think they mean whose, not who's, which is a contraction for who is, but who knows), it features tracks from Definitive Jux and System Recordings artists such as Rjd2, EL-P, Christopher Lawrence, Dieselboy + Kaos and others and is due out Sept. 7.

A related benefit featuring DJ sets from El-P, Junior Sanchez, Aesop Rock, Dieselboy and others is slated to happen Sept. 7 at New York's Bowery Ballroom.

It seems that Urb is becoming more politically aware. The magazine is reportedly going to run a piece on the politics of rapper Chuck D. and comedian Margaret Cho. And we ran into Urb publisher Raymond Roker at the Democratic National Convention in Boston last week. He was picking up media credentials so he could cover the show for his magazine.

'Sky TV: Progressive house duo Deepsky is set to film the video for its Yoshitoshi hit "Talk Like a Stranger" Aug. 28 at Avalon Hollywood. The guys say four high-definition cameras will take in the crowd and a Deepsky performance featuring a full band.

The duo is wrapping up a full-length studio album and is expected to shop it around and sell it to the highest-bidding label.

Chillout: The Orb's publicist wants me to remind YOU that the legendary ambient act's latest album, Bicycles & Tricycles, is out today on Sanctuary Records.

I would give you my two cents on the CD, but my copy wouldn't play in my car and it's been sitting in the back seat, chilling out, taking in the sun. (I blame my car CD deck, which has never been kind to CD-Rs, for some reason).