B Bravo & Teeko - Starship Connection

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  • Borrowing from '70s and '80s funk is nothing novel, but few do it as well as San Francisco's B Bravo, who now backs his meaty, groovy sound up with a full band. His latest EP with keyboardist Teeko, Starship Connection for San Fran outfit Frite Nite, shows him at his most triumphant. "The Roll Out" is a pretty damn accurate title, as Bravo & Teeko lay out all their sonic trademarks methodically and leisurely. Winding synth lines twirl and pirouette, vocoders mumble and each bar hits with an impressive force that's nonetheless gentle and caressing. His sanguine groove is alive and human, the kind of thing Jimmy Edgar might make if he was a frontman for a band rather than a bedroom producer. The rest of the EP is interchangeable variations on the same theme, a pleasant blur of boogie. "More Than Just a Dream" is even more squiggly, curling each staggering beat around a squeaky vocal. Most successful is "Double Up (K Murda's Theme)," which bolsters the duo's core sound with emphatic pitchbenders and punchy horn samples. Their attempts at electronic/acoustic fusion aren't always so serene, however, and "Just Like Magic" has a raspy female vocal that seems to get lost in the duo's thick woods of intertwining melody lines and offbeat boogie. The EP wraps up with "More Than Just a Reprise," which incorporates live piano and what sounds like live bass for something that veers dangerously close to session musician-ism but survives by way of its own conviction.
  • Tracklist
      01. The Roll Out 02. More Than Just A Dream 03. Just Like Magic 04. Double Up (K Murda's Theme) 05. More Than Just A Reprise
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