Pushin On

The second outing from Will ‘Quantic’ Holland’s retro soul/funk/R’n’B project indulges the DJ/producer’s love for that late 60s early 70s raw funk sound: gritty, sharp drum patterns, insistent brass stabs, spindly guitar riffs from guitar one, chicken scratch chords from guitar two under pinned by choppy, highly syncopated basslines. It’s the funk of The Meters and The JBs at their peak, before synths, wah-wah or phaser pedals, no studio trickery, just the sound of a tough R’n’B band solidly locked in. UK vocalist Alice Russell appears on five of the eleven tracks including the pure James Brown funk of the title track as well as a sophisticated orchestrated cover of Nina Simone’s It’s A New Dawn — backed up by a funky clattering New Orleans snare pattern of course. The inclusion of a brash cover of Mr Scruff’s Get A Move On and the thematic Balearic/soul jazzer Paintings and Journeys show a band pushing beyond retro swamp funk, rounding out the whole affair very nicely.