Kinetix, The Shady Horns, The Motet, Lettuce, The New Mastersounds, Dumpstaphunk, Funky METERS, P-Funk – this probably sounds like a list you’d like to see on your favorite festival lineup as you cross your fingers that the band members mix it up a bit and pop into each other’s performance slots. Well, this may not be a summer fest announcement but funk lovers everywhere can uncross their fingers because musicians from the bands in this list have come together in supergroup Analog Son. If you want the funk, if you gotta have it, then this talented gang of funk’s finest is here to once again fulfill your collaborative musical cravings.
Back in 2012, Kinetix’s lead guitarist, Jordan Linit, answered touring musicians’ needs for a quality recording space when he and Joel Scanion opened Scanhope Recording Studio on the steps of Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado. Often, artists had more talent to offer than could fit on a single studio album, so Linit and fellow Kinetix member Josh Fairman quickly found themselves with a collection of out-takes and jams too solid to let fall to the wayside. Factoring in the bonds fostered during various recording sessions and unstoppable creative momentum, Linit and Fairman began to put a plan for Analog Son into action. The two lifelong friends and band members organized a musical powerhouse featuring a rotating line-up of the industry’s headliners, delivering improvisational gold.
If you’re just hearing about Analog Son, you have a small window to jam out to their 2014 self-titled album before their sophomore release, Stomp and Shout drops on March 7th. Stomp and Shout features Ryan Zoidis and Eric Bloom of The Shady Horns, faces from The Motet, Nigel Hall of Lettuce (who doesn’t love Mr. Hall these days?!), Joe Taton of The New Mastersounds, P-Funk’s Benzel Baltimore, and Terrence Houston and Ivan Neville of the Funky METERS. The project will also be paying homage to their roots by featuring a selection of Denver’s finest local musicians. As for the album release, a supergroup like Analog Son deserves an equally note-worthy release event so Colorado’s Bluebird Theater will be hosting the band with Nigel Hall and EOTO/String Cheese Incident’s Jason Hann, alongside other locally and nationally acclaimed musicians on March 7th.
So what does it sound like when these talents combine? Well for starters, you’re going to need the heavy, funky baselines to ground you so that you don’t float away when the satisfyingly smooth melodies of the horns kick in on opening track, “Shady Nights.” From there, there is no guarantee you will be able to stay in your seat as “Gun Show” and “Put in Work” get your shoulders a’one-two shufflin’. Not to mention that the title track features an impressive collaboration of four keyboardists . . . Can you think of another time four master keyboardists have played on the same track?! “Done Son” truly highlights how talented each and every appearing musician is, as the listener struggles to choose which instrument they should play along with in the air; keys, guitar, bass, horns? All of it! “St. Claude and Press” will have you strutting like a N’awlins Second Line and as promised in “What It Is,” Analog Son will get you up and never let you down! “So Good” speaks for itself and if you pop this CD on during your morning commute, you will undoubtedly be “Funkin’ in the AM.” Analog Son is also quite possibly the only band in the world that will have you craving more “Creepin’”! From start to finish, this supergroup has created a super album that guarantees its listeners a good day. Linit shares, “The coolest thing has been the momentum. What we recorded for fun turned out so good, we knew we had to keep going with it.” Listening to their sophomore album, it is impossible to not pick up on this momentum and feel a push to keep going as well. If everyone started off their day with some Analog Son, it would not be a stretch to say the world just might be a better place- that’s how joyously funky this rotating crew of improvising musicians truly are! The cover art is also beautiful, resembling something William Blake might have painted while listening to The Meters!
The band revealed they have enough initial content for a third album, as well, so you’ll want to jump on the Analog Son band wagon sooner rather than later and brace yourself for a funky ride! Like they sing in “Put in Work,” “The finer things in life are never free” so do your ears and soul a favor and be sure to snag a copy of Stomp and Shout on March 7th and stay tuned for additional fall tour dates!
Album Review by Mia Jester
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