Cory Henry's Funk Apostles freak out at Concorde

This young trio have been attracting some attention recently; they build on the classic line-up of drums, Fender bass and Moog/Rhodes keyboards, augmenting their sound with all kinds of modish pedals and effects, and supplying the drummer with the now obligatory extra snare, so that they sound much grander and multi-textured than you'd expect. They like to dabble in odd-number time signatures but really hit their stride laying down some heavy mid-pace 4/4 for a dreamy space-jam, mixing up fragments of fusiony riffs with big washes of electronic sound to dramatic and very contemporary effect that borrows from jazz, rock, hip hop and funk without sounding like any of the above. As evidenced by their upcoming single, 'Godzilla', they are showing capabilities of making a very big, shiny and compelling sound – let's hope they capture it in the studio.

Cory Henry and his Funk Apostles burst onto the stage wearing Halloween masks and charge straight into a high-energy, cartoonish medley of P-Funk and James Brown's 'Sex Machine' – though the word 'sex' is removed from the chorus, maybe out pf respect for Henry's church upbringing. Fronting the super-tight unit of drums, bass, guitar, a second keyboard player and two vocalists, Henry works the crowd hyper-energetically from the very beginning, showing his skills as a dancer, singer and relentlessly upbeat MC, but the music is a bit generically showband until he hits the monosynth for a vertiginously squealing solo, and everybody gets a big hit of what they came to see. Next comes a spooky, poundingly heavy downtempo version of '1999', suitable for Halloween; the sort of titanic portentous slow-march used by Jay-Z or Kanye, with the darkness of trap, interspersed with quotes from 'Get Ur Freak On' for good measure. Henry exudes charisma all over the place and sings up a storm – second keys man Nick Semrad shows he's no slouch either, and whips the crowd into a lather with a bravura display of chromaticism on his Prophet synth. Without pausing for breath, they launch into a minor key 4/4 stomp in the 'Be Thankful For What You've Got' groove, Henry tearing it up on his virtual Hammond – there's the added bonus of a solo from uber-bassist Sharay Reed, before guitarist Andrew Baile cuts loose with an awesome demonstration that starts with Nile Rogers-style funk and builds to full-on Mach 4 fusion sweep-picking. The band drop out, leaving the bandleader at the organ for a phenomenal cadenza that takes it to church and then away into the outer reaches.

Though the band have been at it for over an hour, there's plenty more to come. Henry demonstrates his considerable vocal skills on a series of muscular pop-funk originals, with 'I'll Trade It All' a grooving stand-out with an intro distantly related to Timmy Thomas' 'Why Can't We Live Together' – Semrad lays down a spine-tinglingly funky piano solo, and Henry has plenty of space to get to work on the monosynth again. There are echoes of George Duke's similar mix of funky jazz chops and pop sensibility, and his ability to coax endless soaring melodies out of the synth, exploiting it's ability to pitch-bend and modulate to create all sorts of soul-drenched vocalisations.

There's a great sense of camaraderie from the giant personalities onstage that lasts til the crashing 'Hey Joe' section leading to the audience-participation finale, everyone singing along and even managing to change key under Henry's enthusiastic guidance. Anyone who was expecting something more progressive, along the lines of Snarky Puppy, might have initially felt disappointed, but couldn't have failed to be swept up in the momentum generated by this super-slick, high-energy showband. As Sharay Reed declares on the webpage, "I'm excited about the Funk Apostles because we represent The People in our ideas, our personalities, and our love of music. There is no bullshit here. We keep the asses shakin', the heads noddin', and the hearts full." Which just about sums it up.

– Eddie Myer
– Photos by Lisa Wormsley