Though he didn't cut as visually striking a figure, keyboardist Bernie Worrell was as instrumental to the success and style of P-Funk as George Clinton. Worrell's trademark squiggly synth line on "Flashlight" is one of the most sampled sounds in hip-hop history, and his '70s Minimoog work is the source that all retro-R&B/funk acts look to when replicating vintage synthesizer sounds. By the '90s, he had progressed far beyond the P-Funk sound, as BLACKTRONIC SCIENCE makes clear.
The album's opener "Revelation in Black Light" is a semi-classical piece powered by Worrell's orchestral keyboard manipulation. "Flex" places things firmly in the '90s with its hip-hop beat and rap vocal. "Time Was" is one of the more P-Funkish efforts, where Worrell's quirky, vibrato-heavy keyboard style comes to the forefront. It's swiftly followed, however, by the jazzy, sax-driven "Blood Secrets," which displays the breadth of Worrell's rhythmic and harmonic capabilities. Ultimately, BLACKTRONIC SCIENCE updates Worrell's funk legacy without abandoning the foundation on which his legend was built.