Breakestra?Hit The Floor – [Ubiquity]

Hunter Gatherer   10/31/2005   CD, Soul

The world has waited four years for this release from L.A.’s live soul ensemble Breakestra. (2001’s The Live Mix, Part 2 is in Hip Hop/CD.) They appear to have moved from Stones Throw to Ubiquity.

Breakestra mastermind Miles Tackett and his inhumanly talented musician friends give us just over an hour’s worth of original funk/soul/hip hop/soul jazz compositions. They ask (and answer) the music question: Why go to all the trouble of sampling break beats and digging around in musty record stores when you have the DNA to soul music embedded in your head, heart, and butt?

The music is 2/3rds looking backward and paying homage to 70’s soul and funk masters like The Meters, The J.B.s, and countless others while the other third is looking forward to the unlimited possibilities that lie between genres.

Instrumentation: guitar, bass, drums, sax, trumpet, trombone, fender Rhodes, flute, bari sax, organ, upright [sic] cello. Vocals are provided by Mix Master Wolf and Music Man Miles with guest vocals by Darryl Jackson (14) and Chali 2na (of J5), Soup, DoubleK, & Darryl ‘Munyungo? Jackson (11).

This CD sounds good on every sound system in my house. How do they mix it to do that?

Instros: 4, 6, 10, 12
Language: 14: ‘Kiss my ass?
–Hunter Gatherer