6FearS7 - 'Little Green Box - ep' (self released) 4.5/5

I first discovered Bristol funk rockers 6Fears7 about a year back, playing in the back room of a local pub as part of a local street festival. I blagged a copy of their debut ep, 'The Sky Turned Black' which received a fair bit of airplay on the show, and their single Break Me Down became a listener fave later in the year on its release, becoming the 'earworm' featured track for September 2011. Since then the band have been gigging heavily all over the UK and are now hitting us with this their brand new four track ep.

Now the bands mission statement reads, '6FEARS7 want nothing more than you, on your feet, dancing your tits off.' and listening to this ep it's not hard comply with their wishes. This ep is a superb nugget of rock infused high energy funk that bounces into your ears like a hyper active puppy and sets your body mind and soul dancing along on waves of pure infectious energy.


It kicks off with Fetch The White Coats, a cut that the Greg Badman /  Michael Goodman rhythm section drives into a sweet funky frenzy that sounds a little like Parliament jamming with Primus and Blind Lemon coming in on the chorus. And it just gets better. Dirty Town (Northampton) is a sleazy little slow funk work out that bops along with a joyous beat that perfectly counterpoints the sneering downbeat lyrics. On Your Knees kicks off with a riff thats pure James Brown and intermixes it with some guitar work from Tom Agg that is dripping Led Zep style classic rock sensibilities; and the ghetto strut of closer Indignation features a killer vocal delivery from  Tamsin Cullum and has hints of early Faith No More about it. All great stuff indeed.

All in this another great ep from one of Bristols most promising outfits. I can see big things ahead for this band, oh yes, definitely one to watch.

Bloody great!!

for fans of... Primus, Faith No More, Parliament, George Clinton, James Brown etc.....

Lenny Kravitz - 'Black And White America' (roadrunner records) 4/5

It only seams like yesterday Lenny Kravitz seamed to explode out of nowhere with his infectious funk groove driven brand of hard rock, so I'm a little amazed that he now reached album number 9 in the form of 'Black and White America', how times flies when your having fun! Anyway the bottom line is there's a new LK album around and it's a pretty good one.

Musically this album does just what it says on the tin, it's a stylistic cake walk through the history of American popular music from both the white and African American traditions. you get tracks like the Black And White America itself and Come On Get It that are firmly rooted in the P-funk traditions of Parliament, The Faith of A Child is classic gospel, Rock Star City Life and In The Black and good old hard rockers with a Tom Petty vibe about them, Liquid Jesus is a track that drips classic soul and Motown influence and tracks like Boongie Drop heads off into hip-hop territory (featuring as it does a certain Jay Z as guest rapper).

The album is well played, well penned and well performed. My only complaint being that in trying to embrace so may different styles and genres on one album, and doing each one so well, this album does in places hang together more like a compilation release rather than a full blown album, but as individual tracks there is nothing to find fault with here.

Highlights? well the disco strut of Superlove features some great guitar work, Looking Back On Love has more than a hint of the Carlos Santana's to it (and I love Carlos) and my personal fave cut is the sleazy rock stomp of Stand.

Couple the musical excellence with lyrics that talk about racial harmony, love, peace and empowerment (man) you have a really good and very listenable album. Nice one Mr Kravitz

For fans of... Good American music in all it's guises.