Fuzzed Up (Deep East) is an all new, all instrumental album from Los Angeles’ Orgone that was released earlier this year, but I was not aware of it until the other day, so I decided to check it out. They are a funk band who like to add in elements of rock, soul, jazz, and Afrobeat into their music so some tracks may sound like a deep Meters track, others may be along the lines of Poets Of Rhythm or Big Chief, while other times things may lean towards The Stooges or the MC5, as if they’re traveling to various funky cities and getting off on everything from food to women to stereo equipment from 1971. It’s blistering musically, and its ugly and gritty on the audio side, not bootleg by any means but it has the feel of something that was decided in a live room with live people playing this music live. A song like “Swinging Grits” may be perfect as background music for your latest skateboard, surfing, or skiing film, while “Deuce In The Hole” sounds like what would happen if the Edgar Winter Group decided to hang out with Art Neville and Zigaboo Modeliste while leaving the guys in ZZ Top to comb their beards in the hallway. The album title is perfect: Fuzzed Up, because that’s what these tracks are. Let this ride all night long until the sun comes up.
(To download the album as MP3’s or WAV files, head over to DeepEastMusic.com. It is free.)
I had a chance to see Orgone in Chicago a couple of years ago when The Right Now opened for them. Great band live– they had vocalist Fanny Franklin with them at the time.
The Right Now flew to LA to record at Orgone guitarist/leader Sergio Rios’ studio where they laid the tracks to Gets Over You down to tape. He’s the one who came up with the cool horn break in “Call Girl.”
Rios is also an extended member of the Stonesthrow Reggae group The Lions.
Mike
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