CD Menahan Street Band The Crossing

Menahan Street Band - The Crossing

wytwórnia: Daptone, 2012

nośnik: CD, format: CD, ilość nośników: 1

digipack

nr kat.: DAP029CD

czas:

avant-pop

https://youtu.be/XXDskgUc63Y

muzycy:

Thomas Brenneck: Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, Synthesizer, Electric Piano, Autoharp

Nick Movshon: Bass, Drums

Homer Steinweiss: Drums

Victor Axelrod: Organ

Mike Deller: Piano

Leon Michels: Tenor Saxophone, Organ

Dave Guy: Trumpet

Side A

1. The Crossing

2. Lights Out

3. Keep Coming Back

4. Three Faces

5. Sleight Of Hand - Baritone Saxophone – Jared Tankel

1. Everyday A Dream

2. Seven Is The Wind

3. Bullet For The Bagman

4. Driftwood

5. Ivory And Blue

Editor's Info:

In addition to their role as the official house band for Brooklyn-based Dunham Records, Menahan Street Band has received critical praise for their oft-sampled 2008 debut album Make The Road By Walking (sampled by Jay-Z, 50

Cent, Kid Cudi, Curren$y and more) and for backing breakout soul singer Charles Bradley on his 2011 debut album No Time For Dreaming (co-written and produced by MSB co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Thomas Brenneck). ''Vibe is a quintessential element in what I'm going for,'' says Brenneck of creating the album. ''Vibe, mood and emotion.'' Those three elements are all over The Crossing, from the opening drum roll of the ominous title track, through the tonal burst of wah-wah guitar on the closing ''Ivory and Blue.'' The Crossing takes you on a cinematic instrumental journey through a nocturnal landscape of moods and emotions, propelled by funky, hip-hopin influenced grooves and dream-like horn and keyboard melodies.

AllMusic.com

After Jay-Z scored a hit with a song that sampled the title track of the Menahan Street Band's debut album, Make the Road by Walking, the band sunk the royalty money into building a studio and toiled for many years on its glowing sophomore effort, The Crossing. The Brooklyn-based instrumental band is comprised of players from some of the bigger names in the soul/funk revival of the late 2000s and beyond, including key figures from the Budos Band, Sharon Jones' Dap-Kings, and Antibalas, not to mention being spearheaded by Dunham Records (a Daptone Records sub-label) founder Thomas Brenneck. The Crossing expands somewhat on the band's debut, with the group plucking inspiration from a wide spectrum of soul and funk subcategories. The breezy springtime shuffle of "Everyday a Dream" draws on subtle hints of psychedelic soul, while darker numbers like "Three Faces" and "Lights Out" re-envision the moody horn arrangements and distant drum sounds of '70s funk and soundtrack composers like David Axelrod. The band also introduces more abstract keyboard sounds on The Crossing, as with the wobbly synth that sits high in the mix on the faux spaghetti Western-flavored "Bullet for the Bagman." Between the newfound electronics and a more heightened use of fuzz-faced guitar tones, the album has a fierceness and darkness that were absent before. A somewhat convoluted influence can also be heard in the band's staggered beats and use of negative space, calling to mind the earliest rudimentary production work of the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA. In a roundabout way, it makes sense that the Menahan Street Band would find as much influence in work that samples obscure '70s funk and soul as they do the original artifacts themselves. Somewhere between the two, the band cultivates a rich collection of emotionally complex instrumental soul, with precise musicianship meeting inspired production and a deeply studied obsession with the often sampled and less often acknowledged obscure geniuses of soul music.

by Fred Thomas

Roling Stone

Brooklyn multi-instrumentalists Menahan Street Band continue to preserve soul and funk, and their new album The Crossing, due October 30th, offers a diverse collection of grooves. Opener "The Crossing" kicks it off with a smooth drum roll and soothing sax and strings that bob and weave into a track that's ready-made for a rapper, while "Keep Coming Back" sways with large organ vamps that settle into a waltz punctuated by horns. Some tracks ride slow and mysterious, like the sauntering "Bullet for the Bagman," while others open up with immediate layers of melody, such as the lively, brass-laden "Driftwood." Staying still with this record is nearly impossible.