Feature photo: Jacob Blickenstaff
After making seven albums in seven years for indie labels or their own, in-house imprint, Richmond Virginia’s own funk fusioneers Butcher Brown has an eighth album coming out on a record company you might actually have heard of. #KingButch is Butcher Brown’s debut on the mighty Concord Records and it’s produced by Concord A&R exec Chris Dunn, but don’t think for a second the success has gone to their collective heads. Not a chance.
Recorded in just two weeks at Jellowstone Studios — Butcher Brown headquarters — where they laid down the tracks for all their prior recordings, #KingButch is unmistakably the same crew who made all that ‘no artificial ingredients’ music as hungry, talented up-and-comers.
If there’s anything different about #KingButch, it might be that Butcher Brown moves deeper into hip-hop territory for #KingButch but they do so on their terms. That means that while MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney is rapping over a repeating funk vamp on “#KingButch,” that vamp is hand-made, not a sample of someone else’s work. The motif used for “Gum In My Mouth” is gentle bossa nova-type melodic figure, and Tennishu raps with the same laid back vibe until he ‘takes the gum out of his mouth’ and kicks up the pace of his rhymes a notch.
“Broad Rock” reintroduces the concept of a well wah-wah’d guitar from Morgan Burrs as a key ingredient of righteous funk, with muted trumpet and saxophone trading barbs. Drummer Corey Fonville lays down one of those tough James Brown beats for “Cabbage (DFC),” where bridge suddenly breaks out with some cushy Rhodes by keyboard whiz Harrison.
“Frontline Intro” is only 44 seconds long but worth mentioning because bassist Andrew Randazzo playing like Jaco fronting what sounds like a string quartet is not something you hear every day (and gosh, it sounds nice). That theme is used for “Frontline” proper, one of their smoothest cuts and headed up by Tennishu’s sax with a righteous Moog feature from Harrison.
“IDK” takes the same, attractive figure and runs it through Tenney (on trumpet), then Burrs and finally Harrison, each putting their own stamp on it. “Love Lock” is a pretty straight-up rendition of Mtume’s late 70’s sunny fusion number but Burrs’ fuzzy guitar ends the song on a rocking bent.
Their other cover choice speaks loudly about Butcher Brown’s own originality. Ronnie Laws 70s deep cut “Tidal Wave” was also the vessel for a hip-hop 90s hit from Black Moon. Drawing from the organic days of funk-jazz, RnB hip hop and even punk, Butcher Brown brings an edge to this alchemy that doesn’t have to brow beat you into submission to its charms when the seductive grooves and confident musicianship are plenty good enough to do that job.
#KingButch will drop on September 18, 2020 from Concord Jazz.
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