It’s been a few years since Living Colour, a premier funk\/metal
\noutfit, breathed its last. So when word got out that former
\nbandmates Doug Wimbish and Will Calhoun were collaborating on a new
\nproject, excitement was sure to build.<\/p>\n
But don’t look at this collaboration, Jungle Funk, to be
\nanything like their previous work. Bassist Wimbish, drummer Calhoun
\nand vocalist Vinx do some impressive work here, but when all is
\nsaid and done, the music sounds sterile and empty.<\/p>\n
The first thing that strikes the listener about this trio is
\nthat there is no guitar player – a fact that is painfully obvious
\nby the time you hit the midway point of this album. Many of the
\ntracks on
\nJungle Funk<\/i> almost cry out for further instrumentation;
\nsongs like “Headfake”, “Cycles” and “Aquarius” all suffer from
\nreliance on just bass, percussion and tape loops.<\/p>\n
That’s right, in lieu of guitar work, the band relies on loops
\nand samples to fill in the empty space. Now, there are times that
\nsuch a mix works out well; songs like “Ugly Face” and “Trance” both
\nshow the strengths of this group. But these become stale quickly,
\nand by the time you get to songs like “People,” you almost find
\nyourself wishing that this album would end.<\/p>\n
This is, by no means, a slam against any of the three musicians
\nwho make up Jungle Funk. Wimbish is one of the most highly regarded
\nbassists in music today, and his contributions to this project are
\nthe cornerstone of it. Calhoun is an accomplished drummer, and Vinx
\n(who had made a name for himself as a solo artist) fights for and
\nquickly earns your respect.<\/p>\n
One thing that puzzles me about Jungle Funk is that the liner
\nnotes say this album was recorded live in Prague. But I don’t get
\nthe feel of a crowd until well over halfway through the album, when
\nyou can hear some faint cheers in the background. Too bad that some
\nof the more boring selections were the ones that you hear the
\naudience on; even they seem to give tentative acceptance to some of
\nthe music presented to them.<\/p>\n
So what would have made
\nJungle Funk<\/i> a better release? I think the addition of even
\none guitar would have helped this project in ways that can’t be
\ncomprehended. Just having another instrument to interact with could
\nhave provided a sense of direction to the music, as well as
\ncreating a solid interplay between instruments and samples. Here’s
\na suggestion that might not go over well: why not ask Vernon Reid,
\nanother former Living Colour member, to sit in the next time? Reid
\nis no slouch on the axe, though he would have to keep the
\nsix-string pyrotechnics to a minimum. The funky jazz that makes up
\nJungle Funk<\/i> doesn’t seem to be the right vehicle for an
\nall-out shred.<\/p>\n
\nJungle Funk<\/i> has its moments of glory, but more often than
\nnot falls in their attempt to blaze new trails in the worlds of
\njazz and funk. Such innovators are bound to run into pitfalls like
\nthese; this I know. But the question to be asked now is: Can they
\navoid these the second time around?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7282],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-38733","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-jungle-funk","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38733"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}