The
Chameleon Project - Funk n Space
The
power and undeniable energy that The Chameleon Project brings to the ten songs
on Funk n Space isn’t something we’ve heard much of in recent years. The
Toronto four piece burn with rare ambition bringing together an array of
musical styles into a signature approach that doesn’t seem like it would work,
but nonetheless sparks with genuine and artful creativity. Led by guitarist and
vocalist Josh Laing, the quartet tackles the songs with a wild and wooly
willingness to try anything once and the gambler mentality driving these
compositions and performances make Funk n Space a truly revelatory experience.
This fiery blend of funk, EDM, disco, jazz, dub, and rock is absolutely
irresistible. They show some obvious influences from bands like The Disco
Biscuits, John Scofield, and Bonobo, but there’s little question before half of
the album has concluded that The Chameleon Project play by their own rules and
make it work on the basis of talent alone.
Despite
the influences cited above, The Chameleon Project has their own identity and
it’s clear from the outset. “Milky Way” takes a number of musical elements onto
its back and makes it all work. The keyboards and drumming are particularly
effective here and the incidental human voices rising out of the mix are further
adornments that set the performance apart here and elsewhere on the album. It’s
a relatively bold move to open your album with the second longest song on the
release, coming in at a little over six minutes in length, but “Milky Way”
never feels that long and there doesn’t seem to be even a sliver of wasted
motion in the track. “Steppin’” shares a similar economy despite its length and
shows off the band’s penchant for pouring old wine into new bottles with
ingenious revamping of standard reggae tropes. It mixes the electronic textures
that are one of the band’s hallmarks with the usual approach to this form. This
primarily instrumental album continues to impress with the art rock style
distinguishing “Kraken”, though it is a little disheartening to hear such an
obviously intelligent band opt for ambient aquatic songs in a song about a
water beast. It makes sense for them to do so and they never succumb to
overkill, but it just seems a little too obvious.
“Reactor”
is the first outright foray into EDM territory, but The Chameleon Project mixes
up the punches with some stunning guitar work that achieves unexpected lyrical
heights thanks to its phrasing. It makes utter sense to pair this track with
the follow up “Bigfoot” – The Chameleon Project opts to go even more sharply in
a rock music direction with its forceful drumming, but they keep things
surprising with an approach to the guitar playing quite distinct from what we
would hear mainstream rock acts ever dare. The final song on Funk n Space,
“Wako”, shows a little bit of playfulness, but it’s largely a kind of final
musical statement summarizing everything the band’s covered to this point. It
can stand on its own, however, as a monumental fusion of the band’s tendencies
rather than merely elaborating on what has come before. Funk n Space has the sort of keen-eared take
on genre hopping that such experiments deserve, but they’ve also managed to
craft an album with the potential to appeal across a wide spectrum.
Scott
Wigley
No comments:
Post a Comment