SOUL BASEMENT is the musical creation of Italian musician/songwriter/producer FABIO PUGLISI. The quartet has played together since 1997 and have slowly built up a loyal following throughout Italy
Soul Basement’s latest release might be the one to break the band to a wider audience. You, see, the gentle 8 track collection, ‘What We Leave Behind’, is full of old school soul and jazz flavours while the message in the music is universal. Fabio says: “This planet we’re living in really seems upside-down. We can sense that something definitely got lost along the way. Sometimes music helps us to better understand all that. Music allows us to just stop and reflect, enabling us to see things clearer and, above all, to know what is beyond words and thoughts. And, ultimately, it’s exactly what’s beyond that counts. What’s inside us – and beyond at the same time – is what we leave behind, everything else is like autumn clouds.”
The songs on ‘What We Leave Behind’ reflect that philosophy… none more so than the lovely ‘Noise Pollution’. It features plenty of old fashioned soul brass riffs, jazzy key board fills and a sonorous vocal from Jay Nemor, whose whole approach reminds me of Cunnie Williams… deep, mellifluous, languid, lazy and so, so soulful!
Nemor’s vocal is a consistent album highlight, maybe at its best on the slinky, jazzy ballad that is ‘With You’ or the Gil Scott-Heron flavoured ‘It’s Time’. Right now, we also like the ethereal ‘Final Reminiscence’, one of the year’s best chill out tunes. Don’t know if Cafe Del Mar are still in business but if they are they could do worse than check this one out. They and everyone else can do just that @ www.soulbasement.com
