The Cromagnon Band release a fantastic new 10-track album of psychedelic soul and indie
The Cromagnon Band was formed in 2015 and is a trio of artists who compose and produce their own work. They describe their approach to music as reverse engineering. Many of their songs start out by the curiosity of figuring out how a track works. This might mean dismantling a hip hop beat, or recreating a guitar riff on an R&B track.
Drummer Tom Watt and Bassist Lenny Walker are both from a music production background whilst Bert Page is a classically trained musician who plays all the keys as well as sax and clarinet. As well as being a studio entity The Cromagnon Band play out as a live trio, adapting and arranging their tracks to the live stage with Bert playing Moog and Rhodes simultaneously.
The band have just released their second album, entitled Mode, which is now available on vinyl via BBE Music. Mode is an album borne of the Cromagnon Band’s creative process of taking breaks they love from the tracks they love, made by the artists they love and then jamming live in the studio until something new evolves that has taken a long journey away from the source. Taking the grooves they composed in these sessions the band reverse engineered what they created and produced the final tracks as a creative trio. From start to finish the whole process is paradoxically both constrained and given creative spontaneity by the 100% live jam creative technique.
The purely instrumental tracks on Mode represent music for the sake of music with no specific narrative but which allow space for the listener to make their own interpretations and create their own mental images. The mood is transcendental and transporting with as many ideas packed into each track as possible. The sound is cinematic and psychedelic dark Funk that showcases the band members’ musical pedigrees and heritage as music lovers; Nordic psych/jazz, classical, boom-bap Hip-Hop breaks and riff heavy rock a la early Black Sabbath.
Check out “Phrygia” (my favorite track on the album) below; the track is an avalanche of funk soul. If you like what you hear, head over to the The Cromagnon Band’s Bandcamp page to buy the album on vinyl.
Phrygia – The Cromagnon Band
