Soul Rebels Brass Band: Unlock Your Mind
Author: Andy Robson
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Marcus ‘Red’ Hubbard |
Label: |
Decca |
Magazine Review Date: |
October/2011 |
RecordDate: |
date not stated |
Perhaps the Rebels most song-centred release, the brass collective still retain their dance energy, drawing deeply as they do on the New Orleans marching band tradition while plugging in more contemporary sounds. The exuberance is irresistible, as epitomized by Edward Lee’s subsonic yet pirouetting sousaphone. What’s more the hip hop and rap elements are seamlessly folded in on the dance floor anthems like ‘Turn It Up’ and ‘Gonna Take Your Body’, plus the marginally tougher ‘My Time’. But that said, this is milk mild material: this is SRBB as pop and dance stars, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band they sure ain’t. It’s all good time grooves, blitzed with an understandable optimism needed to overcome the horrors of Katrina, but somebody will have to explain how the Eurhythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’ crept on board. The strongest cuts are the rarest like the thumping ‘I’m So Confused’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living In The City’ done as a rattlingly rapid march.

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