Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking [ALBUM]

Dunham Records/Daptone Records

December 12, 2008, 05:23 PM

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I have never been to New York – but “Make The Road By Walking” sounds like everything I expect the Big Apple to be. I can’t put my finger on it.

Is it jazz?, I asked myself. Will it be difficult to understand?! True, the blaring trumpet arrangements and intricate drum flicks tempted me to easily pigeon-hole the Brooklyn-based ensemble but the members of the Menahan Street Band like to refer to themselves as ‘instrumental soul’. A worrying idea of a genre at face value, but the fact that Jay-Z lifted this album’s title track and sampled it in his smash hit “Roc Boys” is surely enough to prove to you that the Menahan Street Band are in-touch enough to be accessible but quirky enough to become... moreish.

There are horns, flutes, pianos, organs, basses, vibes (of both kinds), and even a fantastic array of conga drums, all knitted together and fighting for your ear, track after track after track. Key musician and producer Thomas Brenneck has even canned his own trademark sound, a noise that can only be credited as ‘bling’ (formed by cleverly tuning and plucking guitar strings in a totally unconventional way), leaving an off-the-wall clink that resonates throughout the whole album and adds something personal to the band’s distinctly modern yet stirring arrangements.
“Make the Road By Walking” is rife with musical flavour too, of course. “Home Again!” is introduced with a slick Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar lick, but the vibe quickly gives way to the strangely Caribbean sounding “Montego Sunset”. There’s a great showcase of call-and-response style playfulness throughout this track in particular as it’s crammed with barely-there piano twiddles and guitar twists, and it’s great to hear within the composition that the musicians are clearly having a bit of a piss-around with what they own and aren’t afraid to add a bit of humour to their work! Tracks “The Contender” and “Esma” would so easily belong as a soundtrack to a gangster movie – they conjure up images of cruisin’ round for a bruisin’ in a dark and dreary corner of somewhere Stateside, whilst still maintaining the Menahan Street Band’s brilliant eccentricity. Final track “Going the Distance” is, indeed, a jazzed-up remake of the Conti classic from ‘Rocky’ - and pretty majestic too.

Is it same-old? Will I get to the end of it?! Well yes! In fact, surprisingly and thankfully, the lush layers of instrumentation and original and fun take on a previously underground genre ensure that “Make the Road By Walking” is actually, simply, a fine record. It’s even better when I consider that the entire album was recorded in Brenneck’s apartment in the actual Menahan Street in Brooklyn. The production is grounded but well thought-out and if I hadn’t have read the CD cover thoroughly I would never have guessed it was a home project! The concept of the band has just grown from dragging in quality players and bashing their heads together and I just love music so... alive. You should too.

http://www.myspace.com/dunhamrecords

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