Veteran soul and funksters, THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS have just released a new album, ‘Old School’ (via One Note Records ). The long player was flagged up by the earlier release of two singles. First we were asked to ‘Do The Sausage Roll’ – a soul-jazz instrumental with a funky undertow with the main melody led by an old school, wailing Hammond. Then we enjoyed ‘Smoothie, ’ an equally infectious, Hammond-led, busy slice of funky, soul-jazz.
The ten tracker that is ‘Old School’ delivers plenty more of the same. Opening with a loose, funky, ‘Down On The Farm’ (complete with old school chanting), the scene is set for an authentic, earthy, funk fest.
The band’s heroes and inspiration are evident throughout. The rhetorical ‘Boogaloo Is Dead’, through opening with the Hammond, becomes a tribute to guitar maestro Ivan ‘Boogaloo’ Joe Jones’ while the source of ‘Breakfast T’ is obvious. This could’ve been cut down in Memphis rather than in a studio in the wet and windy English Peak District! ‘In Da Club’ (no, not that one) is gritty and sparse in the manner of a certain James Brown . ‘Till The Cows Come Home’ has that lovely, loose Meters feel while ‘Buggin’’ puts a reggae spin on the whole funk idiom. ‘Two Fat Ladies’ is a little more down tempo. You may know that the title refers to the old school bingo-caller’s code for the number 88 and that’s the tune’s tempo – 88bpm. It’ a lovely languid two-bar funk groove featuring, spacious jazzy piano rather than the Hammond. These two fat ladies (totally non PC, of course) add real variety to this splendid funk fest.
