When I think funk, the first song that comes to mind is Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cSuperstition.\u201d After that, the songs fly thick and fast: \u201cTheme from Shaft<\/i>,\u201d \u201cTear The Roof Of The Sucker,\u201d \u201cWord Up,\u201d \u201cPlay That Funky Music,\u201d anything by James Brown\u2026<\/p>\n
What do these songs have in common? For me, it\u2019s energy and attitude. It\u2019s in your face. While elements of funk music can be subtle, on the whole it should have a sense of power to it. It should make you want to move your feet, swing your hips, bob your head, snap your fingers. It should be, in a word, funky<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Drift<\/i>, the debut effort from Germany\u2019s The Winston Brothers (the nom de musique for producer and instrumentalists Sebastian Nagel and Lucas Kochbeck), is described in their promotional materials as being funk that is both \u201cdreamlike and incendiary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Drift<\/i> only got half of it. It is definitely dreamlike. What it lacks is any sense of fire.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s good about it? It\u2019s impeccable musically. Everything is performed with style and skill; the analog production is tight and dirty. (The Brothers share a dislike for digital music. In this style, that\u2019s appropriate. The CD\u2019s centerfold shows all their vintage analog production equipment, and it\u2019s damned impressive.)<\/p>\n
The problem is the utter lack of fire. Even on upbeat numbers like the title track, the music seems repressed or suppressed. The horns, which should blow your socks off, are almost polite. The mix seems off; nothing is as punchy as it should be. Sure, it\u2019s funk, and stylish funk as well, but it\u2019s like the perfect chili with no chiles. Something is missing, and it\u2019s sad.<\/p>\n
I really hope the next CD by the Winston Brothers has that punch. They\u2019re very good at the technical aspects of what they do; they just need more heart, more grit, and more Richard-Roundtree-walking-through-traffic attitude. Time will tell if they get it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10800],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-46505","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-winston-brothers","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46505","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46505"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}