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Written
by Laura Dodero, posted by blog admin
The
Joe Olnick Band adds to its vast discography with their 6th LP to
date, Downtown, the follow-up to
their prior collection Defiant Grooves.
Downtown truly lives up to its name by
sporting a city after midnight motif that makes itself known through the band’s
uplifting dark shuffles and shimmies.
Basking
in the twilight hour of the evening, album opener “Downtown” ignites the jazz
club just around the corner with funky guitar pyrotechnics while a walking bass
line dances all over a churchy keyboard hum and a beat that could get a dead
man to move. From this point onward the
album goes from strength to strength, displaying the magical chemistry between
the band members. Joe Olnick (guitars),
Jamie Aston (bass) and Jamie Smucker (drums) have obviously spent time honing
their craft on the stage, jam room floor and in the studio which renders each
of these songs into a tight, well-oiled machine. Second cut “Philadelphia Moonlight (Part One)”
places the mood under a full moon shimmer as a snappy, filling and rolling drum
groove expands ever onward amongst the swirl of cosmic bass boosts and funky,
psychedelic luau guitar licks.
The
low slung, darker still mid-tempo funkadelia of “Food Truck” feels like it’s up
to a really fun no good from the very first note. Somehow the band manages to show superb
restraint and dedication to sticking with a groove, waiting for perfect moments
to throw in jammy, rocked-out lead guitar bits, slamming bass lines that will
step out and around Olnick’s flowing melodies and settle in the pocket that
Jamie Smucker’s kickin’ percussion provides.
Impressive, extensive soloing from Joe smooths this composition out to
perfection. “Parkside” reckons of a
crazy, outsider era Beach Boys fugue with its odd keyboard flourishes and
unusually psychedelic, slightly acerbic FX screeches. Despite this free-form jazz/noise weirdness,
the entire song is built around a rock solid rhythmic shakedown and
mesmerizing, fuzzed-out guitar work.
If
the first “Philadelphia Moonlight” was a tranquil shimmer, “Part Two’ is
transmitted from the heart of the witching hour. It’s even more akin to a Beach Boys’
freak-out in terms of its instrumental texturing and distinct studio production
that highlights each players’ every bewitching note. “Rush Hour” releases the built up tension of
the previous track for a shag-shaking funk rock rumble with a soaring bass line
and bluesy, psychedelic guitar leads n’ trip-out keys
vying for control of your soul… If
that’s not enough the final track “Sports Complex” takes of all that
psychedelic weirdness and buries it beneath insane distortion for a fast-paced
take on going completely, instrumentally mad (forgot to mention that there are
no vocals on this unique album).
Joe
Olnick and the boys whip up a really quirky frenzy on album number 6. The songs are varied and the playing tight,
making it impossible to guess which direction the music will turn in next. They’re not afraid to take risks with their
sound and because of that Downtown is
a 7 track ride that’s absolutely worth taking.
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