Austin, Texas’s brilliantly inventive proggy experimentalists James Petralli and co return with an appropriately named 12th LP, one which, created in the lockdown restrictions of 2020-21, needed a different, more DIY approach, but weaves a fabulous mix of rootsy swing, jazz and influences from Scritti Politti to Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Nick Lowe to Jonathan Richman. The upbeat, sprightly, playfully philosophical first track, Light On, with lyrics about how of us eventually will go (but “laughing in the face of the hardness”, opens with reverse sounds, and stop-start jazz squeaks, but launches into a delightful walt-time, and shapeshifting rhythm, that sweeps into careful joy. The video expresses how the creative process was conducted in different locations from afar, Petralli often unable to play alongside others in person. But while under all sorts of pressures, from looking after a sick father to home-schooling his kids, Petralli seems to have one of the upbeat lockdown LPs around, from the Ecolining’s delightful cross-rhythmic strings and drums, the rootsy, almost glam-rock/counrty style groove of Flash Bare Ass, the quirky funk-soul pop of Look Good (with Tameca Jones and Jessie Payo), or the sun-dappled soul-pop of Second Dimension, all the way to slow, jazzier, but serene, reflective, brass-infused closing track, Precious Track. Versatile, inventive, vibrant, and as ever, cleverly original. Out on Bella Union.
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