Throttle Elevator Music has been more-or-less the house band for Gregory Howe’s Bay Area-based Wide Hive Records, a sort of west coast edition of The Meters. Co-led by bassist/keyboardist Matt Montgomery, the two write instrumental tunes that are straightforward, groove-minded and full of soul. The collective is loaded with area talent like drummers Mike Hughes and Lumpy, guitarist Ross Howe, organist Mike Blankenship and a saxophonist by the name of Kamasi Washington.
Emergency Exit is their 6th album but like the prior five, these ten cuts were essentially recorded between 2011 and 2014, four of these are alternate versions of songs first appearing on previous Throttle Elevator Music albums.
The time frame means that this features a pre-fame Kamasi Washington and while you hear plenty of him in this band, he plays to the mission of this band, which is a self-described cross between “Coltrane with The Clash.” That’s epitomized on “Rattle Thicket,” vintage RnB mixed with garage rock where Washington his Junior Walker going.
All over this record is that primitive, rock-soul groove that harks back to an analog-drenched 60s-early 70s feeling. In mixing soul horns with undiluted rock and rock guitars and bass, Throttle Elevator Music makes no compromise between the two opposing force; they just serve up heaping helpings of both, like on “Art of the Warrior,” where both the guitar and the horns roar.
And they find different ways to move you from song to song. A tough groove and a taut bass line powers “Jagged Reform,” Jekabson’s trumpet leading the way. “Third Reflection” is ska with a surprising bridge. The dark tones of “Second Breather” is anchored by a rubbery bass line defining the harmony. “Surrender At Station Three” is a short blast of Farfisa-fueled party music.
“Another Moth Drawn To City Light” is mid-tempo with a delicate melody and Crusaders-like soul charts, as the echoing, lo-fi production of the fast-paced “Innerspatial Search” gives it that retro-spacey sound.
Like their previous five long players, Throttle Elevator Music redefines rock-jazz with Emergency Exit by blending a different kind of rock with a different kind of jazz. It’s organically pure spiritual joy.
Emergency Exit is now out, from Wide Hive Records.
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