Camera Soul is an Italian soul and funk band led by Piero and Pippo Lombardo. Piero is a kind of behind the scenes guy – handling writing and generally managing things; Pippo helps big bro with song writing and also plays keyboards. The core of the rest of the band is Beppe Sequestro (bass), Liviana Ferri (percussionist), Fabio Delle Foglie (drummer) and the lovely Maria Enrica Lotesoriere who handles the vocals.
The band work out of Barri in Southern Italy but with three acclaimed albums under their belt the band have a following throughout Europe and in Japan and their last collection – 2015’s ‘Dress Code’ – topped all the credible soul charts in the UK. On the back of that success Camera Soul will be touring the UK at the end of November, taking the opportunity to promote this – their new long player – ‘Connections’.
The 18 track album is already winning praise from soul commentators while savvy DJs have cherry picked a couple of cuts for heavy rotation. Those tunes are the set’s title track and a lovely sweet n’smooth ‘Tonight (in This Night’). ‘Connections’ (the song, not the album) is being aired in two versions; the original which is a tight, melodic soul groove and in a Tom Glide remix. The TG mix cranks up the beats into almost soulful house territory and, oddly, I think, omits the gorgeous vocal. What Monsieur Glide creates though is one huge modern soul groove that is both hypnotic and irresistible. ‘Tonight’ is different again – smooth jazz meets modern soul; but a lovely melody, beautifully delivered and produced… quite charming!
Elsewhere, ones we like right now are the Latino-inflected ‘Meu Carnival’, the poppy Northern soul pastiche ‘Never Enough’ and ‘This Is Not The Right Way’ which mines a similar groove to ‘Tonight’. Listen up too to the poignant tribute to Maurice White – ‘In The Stone’. It’s far too brief and segues into the aforementioned ‘Tonight’. Clearly EWF have been a big influence on the Lombardo brothers and I think dear old Maurice would be impressed by what Camera Soul have produced here.
Camera Soul’s ‘Connections’ is out now and you can find out more @ www.camerasoul.eu
(BB) 4/5
