Dalla famosa label FatBeats arriva questo incredibile album strumentale della band funk Brownout, che porge un doveroso tributo all'album "Fear of a black planet" (e non solo) dei Public Enemy, uscito la bellezza di 28 anni fa (!!!).
Le 12 canzoni sono una vera goduria per gli amanti dei breaks e del funk, è un album da ascoltare e da acquistare ad ogni costo!
Twenty-eight years ago, pissed-off twelve-year-olds around the universe
discovered a new planet, a Black Planet. Public Enemy’s aggressive,
Benihana beats and incendiary lyrics instilled fear among parents and
teachers everywhere, even in the border town of Laredo, Texas, home of
the future founders of the Latin-Funk-Soul-Breaks super group, Brownout.
The band’s sixth full-length album (out May 25th) Fear of a Brown
Planet is a musical manifesto inspired by Public Enemy’s music and
revolutionary spirit.
Chuck D., the Bomb Squad, Flava Flav and the rest of the P.E. posse
couldn’t possibly have expected that their golden-era hip hop albums
would sow the seeds for countless Public Enemy sleeper cells, one that
would emerge nearly three decades later in Austin, Texas. Greg Gonzalez
(bass) remembers a kid back in junior high hipped him to the fact that
Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” is built on James Brown samples, while a
teenaged Beto Martinez (guitar) alternated between metal and hip-hop in
his walk-man, and Adrian Quesada (guitar/keys) remembers falling in
love with Public Enemy’s sound at an early age. “When I got into Hip
hop, I was looking for this aggressive outlet . . . and I didn’t even
understand what they were pissed off about, because I was twelve and
lived in Laredo . . . but I loved it and I felt angry along with them.”
Joseph Abajian (Fat Beats’ owner) must have sensed the deep hip-hop well
lying beneath the versatile band’s Latin-Funk veneer. “I thought their
sound would work covering Public Enemy songs,” Abajian says, and, “it
was good to know they were P.E. fans . . . We came up with a track
listing and they went to work.” Despite the band’s eagerness to work on
new original material (an album of original songs is slated for next
year), they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to pay homage to this
iconic and influential posse.
Translating sample-based music to a live band turned out to be more of a
challenge than they anticipated. Adrian tried to get inside the Bomb
Squad’s [Public Enemy’s producers/beat-making team] head in order to
find the inspiration to reinterpret P.E.’s songs: “imagine the Bomb
Squad going back in time and getting the J.B.s [James Brown’s funky
backing band] in the studio and setting up a couple analog synths and
then playing those songs.” While some songs closely follow the original
musical blueprint, others use the source breakbeats as jumping-off
points later sweetened by Trombonist Mark “Speedy” Gonzales’ horn
arrangements, synth wizardry courtesy of friend-of-the-band Peter
Stopschinski, and DJ Trackstar’s turntable scratches. But don’t listen
expecting to hear paint-by-numbers recreations of classic Public Enemy
jams. “Our approach is never in the tribute sense,” Adrian explains.
“We’ve always taken it and made it our own, whether it’s the Brown
Sabbath thing or this Public Enemy thing.”
Coming off numerous tours as Brown Sabbath and even a stint backing the
late legend Prince, Brownout is arguably the tightest and funkiest band
on the road today and they’re psyched to bring this revolutionary music
to the people. For a band without an overt political agenda, they
collectively couldn’t resist the opportunity to play this music live,
especially now. “If there’s any way that we can use the already
political and protest nature [of P.E.’s music], we would like to try,”
Beto says. “The album’s title, Fear of Brown Planet is definitely a
relevant idea today and we’re not afraid to put it out there, because we
want to speak out.” By reinterpreting these hip hop classics in their
unique style and channeling the spirit of Public Enemy that first echoed
around the world and captured their imaginations all those years ago,
Brownout is doing exactly that.
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