BROOKLYN FUNK ESSENTIALS is cult funk collective who’ve been peddling their take on soul and funk for over 20 years! They have a great pedigree having first come together in Arthur Baker’s Shakedown studio in New Jersey. Since then BFE have established themselves as a bold, envelope-pushing outfit who fuse soul, hip hop, spoken word, jazz, Latin and of course, funk.
Right now the band (now comprising Desmond Foster (guitar & vocals), Lati Kronlund (bass) Hux Nettermalm (drums) Kristoffer Wallman (keys) and Ebba Asman (trombone)) are putting the finishing touches to a new album, ‘Intuition’ – due for release in November. As a tasty hors d’oeuvre, however, the band will be unleashing a single on 13th July – and “unleashing” is the best way to describe the incendiary sound that is ‘Scream!’ – a big builder and tightly syncopated with an Afrobeat undercurrent, it’s properly funky but the icing on the cake is the feisty vocal from another Arthur Baker protégé, Alison Limerick.
Ms Limerick has worked with the band since 2016 and she’s a perfect fit. She says of ‘Scream!’: “Time teaches you that suppressing self-expression is either damaging or impossible. ‘Scream!’, written in the company of those who ‘got’ me, who were happy to let me slip the reins and be me, is a shout for freedom and an encouragement for others to do the same, to find the voice that is truly theirs and use it.” So, there you go! And the soundscape that the BFE crew construct perfectly complements that message and underlines it all with a tight funk groove!
BROOKLYN FUNK ESSENTIALS ; ‘Scream!’ out 13th July; album ‘Intuition’ out November 2022
On Dorado Records
