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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The phrase throwing everything into the mix might have been invented for The Whitefield Brothers second album. Earthology is the culmination of as much as 15 years of recording, and hours of research on the part of Berlin duo's Jan and Max Whitefield (including a trip by Max to Burma to study traditional Saing Waing music).On Earthology, you can hear Asian and Arabic influences alongside their continued fascination with African rhythmic modes, which they began to explore on their 2001 debut In the Raw [VINYL] . Taking as a template 70,s funk the brothers throw in music from all over the globe and even if the album sometimes comes across as a poorly focussed pot-pourri of influences just as often they only intensify and expand the music, showing how funk translates well into other rhythmic, percussive sounds.What they,ve made is a great big funky melting pot as someone somewhere one said.....or something like it anyway
The album's wide-ranging musical landscape is created by everything from Asian gongs and flutes ("Alin") to African strings ("Safari Strut"), and Central American percussion instruments ("Ntu"-an acquired taste this one I'm afraid ). Guest musicians include members of the Express Brass Band and Dap-Kings (providing superlatively funky horn stabs), the Antibalas, El Michels Affair and Quantic. Guest vocalists include Edan and Mr Lif ("The Gift"), Bajka ("Joyful Exaltation"), Percee P and MED ("Reverse").
It is certainly never predictable .The expansive jazz-tinged strains of "Sad Nile "are followed by the catchy brass exhortation and dizzy flute of "The Gift in which Edan and Mr Lif rap-about the miracle of homeostasis. Reverse" is another rap with a subdued almost subliminal resonance that mutates into a more or less house groove. "Taisho" starts off with a bouzouki riff before mammoth drums and bass remind you that this a funk band at heart "Pamukkale " has hypnotic wheezing English horn & flute swaying over urgent repetitive percussion while "Sem Yelesh " has an almost insidious sleazy grace. While the fiddling speedy guitar licks and skittering percussion of "Lullaby For Lagos " suggest a place where sleep is minimal .
Confounding expectations of what a modern funk album should sound like or indeed what any contemporary album should sound like Earthology for all it's moments of worthy sounding ethnic dalliance is actually an album where the pan-global is concentrated into one beguiling often intoxicating brew. Rather than diluting the influences by pandering to western conformity and traditions The Whitefield Brothers have kept true to the inspiration of other cultures with their remarkable ear for the myriad grooves in the world and have melded them admirably with the solid funk at their core.
The album's wide-ranging musical landscape is created by everything from Asian gongs and flutes ("Alin") to African strings ("Safari Strut"), and Central American percussion instruments ("Ntu"-an acquired taste this one I'm afraid ). Guest musicians include members of the Express Brass Band and Dap-Kings (providing superlatively funky horn stabs), the Antibalas, El Michels Affair and Quantic. Guest vocalists include Edan and Mr Lif ("The Gift"), Bajka ("Joyful Exaltation"), Percee P and MED ("Reverse").
It is certainly never predictable .The expansive jazz-tinged strains of "Sad Nile "are followed by the catchy brass exhortation and dizzy flute of "The Gift in which Edan and Mr Lif rap-about the miracle of homeostasis. Reverse" is another rap with a subdued almost subliminal resonance that mutates into a more or less house groove. "Taisho" starts off with a bouzouki riff before mammoth drums and bass remind you that this a funk band at heart "Pamukkale " has hypnotic wheezing English horn & flute swaying over urgent repetitive percussion while "Sem Yelesh " has an almost insidious sleazy grace. While the fiddling speedy guitar licks and skittering percussion of "Lullaby For Lagos " suggest a place where sleep is minimal .
Confounding expectations of what a modern funk album should sound like or indeed what any contemporary album should sound like Earthology for all it's moments of worthy sounding ethnic dalliance is actually an album where the pan-global is concentrated into one beguiling often intoxicating brew. Rather than diluting the influences by pandering to western conformity and traditions The Whitefield Brothers have kept true to the inspiration of other cultures with their remarkable ear for the myriad grooves in the world and have melded them admirably with the solid funk at their core.
Format:Audio CD
Earthology caught my attention because the cover art was so damned cool. That and the fact that I had no idea what a German funk band would sound like.
As the listener you are treated again and again to a flurry of expertly composed, sample friendly tunes that are at once hummable and challenging. And that run the genre gamut from West African traditional music, languid jazz, hip hop, fife & drum and expertly delivered funk beats. The record never loses its groove. The ultimate affect is a bit like Konono No 1 jamming with The Roots. However, while endless comparisons may be made to an array of greats (Othar Turner, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Ali Farka Toure to name but a few) the record has a beat and heart all of its own. It is 21st century, postmodern, postglobal, posteverything funk. Ersatz yes, but no bad thing at all.
Fife, jazz flute, xylophone, electric bass, Booker-T inspired organ and various traditional forms of percussion merge seamlessly together. The overall sound is of a mid 70's funk band covering 50's jazz numbers in the dark, surrounded by a halo of smoke and grime. At least it would be, if they didn't sound on every other track like they just got back from either the Niger river or the Mississippi Delta in the 30's. If they didn't retain the uptempo fury and power of old school hip hop. If they weren't so intent on taking you on a trip through the darkest recesses of their favorite records. Dragging those roots and re-potting them in the here and now for a new generation.
We will hear this album sampled to infinity over the next ten years on any number of quality hip hop records. Which as I said, will be no bad thing.
As the listener you are treated again and again to a flurry of expertly composed, sample friendly tunes that are at once hummable and challenging. And that run the genre gamut from West African traditional music, languid jazz, hip hop, fife & drum and expertly delivered funk beats. The record never loses its groove. The ultimate affect is a bit like Konono No 1 jamming with The Roots. However, while endless comparisons may be made to an array of greats (Othar Turner, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Ali Farka Toure to name but a few) the record has a beat and heart all of its own. It is 21st century, postmodern, postglobal, posteverything funk. Ersatz yes, but no bad thing at all.
Fife, jazz flute, xylophone, electric bass, Booker-T inspired organ and various traditional forms of percussion merge seamlessly together. The overall sound is of a mid 70's funk band covering 50's jazz numbers in the dark, surrounded by a halo of smoke and grime. At least it would be, if they didn't sound on every other track like they just got back from either the Niger river or the Mississippi Delta in the 30's. If they didn't retain the uptempo fury and power of old school hip hop. If they weren't so intent on taking you on a trip through the darkest recesses of their favorite records. Dragging those roots and re-potting them in the here and now for a new generation.
We will hear this album sampled to infinity over the next ten years on any number of quality hip hop records. Which as I said, will be no bad thing.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
A Cultural Exchange of Funk-Engrained Music
28 Jan 2011
Format:Audio CD
Perhaps a rather obvious point, but the unitary vibe of this funk-engrained World Music transpires because its sound coalesces around the guitar, bass and drums. Jan and Max Weissenfeldt are actually the brothers. The profundity of this mainly instrumental beauty is fueled by a cultural exchange of African, Japanese and German instruments along with flutes, saxes and some organ interpolations that come straight out of sixties Haight Ashbury. Though the songs are surely premeditated, they capture that zest of first-take sessions. The three hip hop vocal tracks convey a celebration of existence and complete the record's feel of experience. Of these, "The Gift" is the classic with its unshakable trumpet and trombone riff and engaging flute solo. The instrumental, "Pamukkale", highlights exuberant English horn passages interacting with acid-rock organ. But the most incendiary moments occur with the one-two punch of "Sad Nile" that could give Maceo Parker the shivers and with the last three cuts: the saxophone and organ interplay of "Sam Yelesh", the addicting James Brown funk of "Lullaby for Lagos" colored with flute and "Chich", marimbas and glockenspiel heaven. And voila! It's over before you wish it was. This took many miles and years to bring to fruition, but these were the only two people in the world up for the task. An indispensable new find.
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