Before their next album, Red Snapper should consider ways to make great fusion, not just great electronica played on live instruments. Red Snapper rarely does this, and even the trumpeter changes his tone only slightly to give some tracks more dynamism. Since Charles Lloyd, Cannonball, and Miles Davis began seriously combining funk and rock rhythms with advanced jazz, the best fusion has pushed the groove outward with bold arrangements and improvisations, allowing individual players to transcend the basic beats. I wonder if the "fuck-off jazz" moniker the band has adopted refers to a dismissal of flexible improvisation. Similar results could be, and are, achieved in-studio, using samples and synthesizers. The only problem with this approach is its mundanity.
Several tracks reach a dynamic intensity through juxtaposing these layers of instrumental parts. On a track such as "Bogeyman", a backbeat and a handful of bass notes establish mood, tempo, and texture a guitar riff (think the looping Eb lines on Miles Davis' On the Corner ) adds some sharpness or liquidity and the layering proceeds from there, adding any variation of vocalist, trumpet, trombone, and cello/violin/viola. The core trio of Richard Thair (drums), Ali Friend (bass), and David Ayers on guitar specialize in a form of layering based on tiers of riffs. With Making Bones, Red Snapper present a brilliant downtempo / drum 'n' bass album. The compositions should reflect the advantages of human interaction. No matter how precisely the live drummer lays down the backbeat, regardless of the bassist's tone, the band will be judged in relation to other live bands the group will not be able to rely solely on the novelty of realtime performance if it wants to survive criticism. When a band decides to transfer the backbeats and looped riffs of drum 'n' bass or hip-hop to live instrumentation, it faces a crucial problem. It's obvious the Snapper have mastered all aspects of '90s electronic dance, and Making Bones is proof positive. The rock-steady rhythm section of Richard Thair (drums) and Ali Friend (bass) holds the groove better than any sampler, tying together radically different material like classic British soul on "Image of You," metallic drum'n'bass on "The Sleepless" (with excellent rapping by MC Det) and the fusion update "Bogeyman" (with trumpeter Byron Wallen). Poised halfway between Sly & Robbie and Roni Size, Red Snapper's first album for a worldwide audience surfs a wave of breakbeat funk that includes nods to dub, punk, soul, drum'n'bass and hip-hop. A full decade of acid jazz never produced a more stunning fusion of electronic music with live instrumentation than Making Bones.
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