ALBUM REVIEW: Busty and the Bass- 'Eddie'

Busty and the Bass first met on the McGill University jazz program in Montreal, Canada- the country’s cultural capital. This chance meeting forged an infrangible friendship among eight gifted musicians and gave birth to a sonic movement shaped by over fifty years of musical influences from the likes of jazz, soul, and funk.

‘Eddie’- the band’s sophomore full-length- is the product of a decades-long tonal exploration uninhibited by creative boundaries.

‘Out Of Love’ feat. Macy Gray begins with a blast of mellifluous brass sounds that ready the stage for the showstopper performance from Macy, whose celestial vocals harmonize exquisitely with Busty’s own Nick Ferraro. ‘Kids’ is full of juddering keyboards and gravelly vocals with an undercurrent of nostalgia in the lyrics, and ‘Baggy Eyed Dopeman’ feat. Parliament-Funkadelic founder George Clinton is a blistering number full of pulsing rhythm.

‘Clouds’ feat. Amber Navran is an interstellar journey with sporadic, eerie synths, and suggestions of R&B. The album’s title track is a beauteous, delicate ballad with honeyed, falsetto vocals, and the ethereal ‘Cold Nights’ seeps with euphoric instrumentation and a deluge of emotion in the vocals.

Busty and the Bass have crafted an album full of pleasant surprises and strokes of genius that makes for a marvelously unhurried listen.