My favorite UK acid jazz group. What do you mean you don't have a favorite UK acid jazz group? Anyway, if you want to think of this music as smooth jazz, that's fine. You want to think of it as dance music? That's OK, too. The group mixes up the speed and feels of the songs here a little more than usual. Great keyboard work and catchy horn licks. Critics usually pick this album as the group's best and I might agree with them (for once). I picked this up from a used bin last year for $3.99. Money well spent.
Down to the Bone is unusual in that its leader/arranger/producer, British DJ Stuart Wade, does not play any instruments. Instead, Wade hums his musical ideas into a recorder, which are then reproduced by the band.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: My picks are On A Roll, Music Is My Drug, and Searching For A Simple Groove. The smooth I Softly Surrender (To You) is as close to a ballad as this group gets. There's a vocal track, My One And All, with vocals from Hil St. Soul and while it isn't among my favorite tracks, it doesn't bother me as much as vocal tracks on instrumental albums normally do. Sounds like something from Jill Scott.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None for this CD, but since discovering this video, I can't listen to DTTB without thinking of it. That dancin' fool is so obviously enjoying himself that the video (and the great song from the Cellar Funk CD) makes me smile.
Previously revisited for the blog:
Supercharged (2007)
Cellar Funk (2004)
The Urban Grooves (1999)
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