Civil Tones
(Pravda)
Lord, what a sweet way to start one's weekend off (or any day, for that matter): sleek but gritty instro soul ‘n' funk just the way your mama used to bake it. We're talkin' the Mar-Keys and MG's side of Stax and Memphis, the Funk Brothers on the Detroit/Motown end of the spectrum, and maybe even a little of The Swampers' flow direct from Muscle Shoals. The Civil Tones are a guitar/keys/bass/drums combo from St. Louis and, as per the album title, make with the sounds of the summer, the kind you'd wanna hear down the alleys and from around the corner as you're moseying along from block to block, hanging out and swapping stories with your friends from the neighborhood. Lady Gaga, this ain't.
Aside from a sinewy cover of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue track "All Blues" these are all original compositions, yet you'd be hard pressed to peg ‘em as having been birthed anytime after, say, 1974. Even the production boasts a warm and intimate analog glow, which bolsters the already pungent stank of such tunes as "Tighten Up/Grazing In The Grass" pastiche "One Day, Again and Again"; the funky, fatback slap of "Soul To Go" (featuring "The Brass Ackwards Horn Section" lending essential swing); hectic romp "The Scrambler" (sounds like a chase scene in a vintage Blaxploitation flick); the New Orleans groove and shuffle of "HowdYaLike to Be King"; and the wah-wah/Dennis Coffey-like "Bungle Funk" - love that title. There are also numbers here ripe for romancing with panache, including the organ-powered, sashaying title track and the lush, subtly Latin cinematic soul of "Slinky" (which brings to mind some of Britain's St. Etienne's similarly relevant crate-digging constructions).
In short, there's a little something for everyone here if you're a lover of any of the styles or titles namechecked above. More to the point, though, these four gentlemen suggest that they are not only astute scholars of some of the greatest music ever made, they also know how to breathe new, vital life into it in order to carry it forth for the next generation. Incidentally, the band's Chicago-based patron, Pravda Records, better watch out or folks are gonna think it's the go-to label for primo contemporary funk ‘n' soul. Pravda's already released a couple of jaw-dropping platters from The Diplomats of Solid Sound (see our recent review here); the arrival of City Stoopin' - the Tones' fourth for the label - is proof that somebody in the office has ears to the ground and feet planted firmly on the street.
DOWNLOAD: "One Day, Again and Again," "Bungle Funk," "Slinky" FRED MILLS
