|
“Are you ready?” “Play that beat.” “It goes
Boom, I do a warrior dance “Uptown
music for the downtown kids “Possibility
through positivity.” Is it possible
to do a whole review of just
quotes from songs? Maybe, but then it wouldn’t give an
accurate picture of the music
now, would it? Of course, the fact that there are so many quotable
lyrics only goes to
state that Fredalba has something to say, and they
say it in the street poetry of
slammin’ rhymes as they throw down to a fresh, now,
happenin’ sound that fuses
every genre that’s ever arisen from the Urban Street scene.
From the Beach Surfers to
London Mods, NY Punks, formative Rap, Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, Latin,
Hardcore and more –
It’s all here. I originally tagged Fredalba
as “Urban Rock,”
but after many, many, many listens, I must correct that categorization
to “Urban
Beats.” Uptown Music For Downtown Kids is the
CD that takes the cultural melting pot of not only “For
the beats we make / And the life they give.” And it
is the Beats, it’s all
the beats, and much more, but it all comes back to the beats. You want
the beats? You want Fredalba. Mario Da
Damio
(drums) and Paul Trutner (bass) lay down
rhythms that get the beats down. Add Miles Guarneri
(turntables) and you have one
of the tightest beat sections around. If anything, Fredalba
takes its rich
urban musical culture and influences and whips them into an intense
frenzy of FX work
(whoever is manning the boards deserves as much credit as the rest of
the band) that
defines their sound, as witnessed in the opening track, Funk Exploration. Fredalbla
wastes no
time droppin’ the beats right in and establishing their
distinct LA sound. One part
Red Hot Chili Peppers, one part Rage Against The Machine, these cats
are jammin’ in a
heavy street sound that can only be birthed from the City of Taking that
celebration out onto the dance
floor, Fredalba delivers a club smash. Leaders
Of The Wasteland is a Talking
Heads, techno-Funk, call and response crowd pleaser that lays an early
80s Beastie Boys
rap over a Prince backbeat with intense turntable scratch work and
flute interplay mixing
it up with some synthesizer to such couplets as “Is it wrong to exercise while sittin on the sofa /
Is
it wrong I gotta quarter in my penny loafer.” The guitar grinds to the hooks of the chorus
(everybody
now): ”We
are the leaders of the Wasteland Which leads to the social message of: “Is it wrong to kill a man , who's killed a man
before Fredalba does ask why, and this is no more prevalent than in Gimme More. This song is so much more than I could ever give it – lyrics that are put forth by someone who truly wants to love his fellow man, for each of us to get along, for us all to live in peace, tolerance, and harmony. But when Fredalba hits the bridge and carries us into the chorus that promotes a sing-a-long “la la la la la / la la la la la la,” it instantly transports me into the Dr. Pepper commercial. The one where the Latin community in some big city (insert LA here) are living the life up on the rooftop of an apartment building – you know the one I mean, they’re dancing and whooping it up all while drinking Dr. Pepper. This song Rocks that way. If I were Fredalba’s manager, I’d have the Dr. Pepper people on the phone right now. And that is what makes the song soooo good. On Progression,
Miles’ turntable work is nothing short of amazing -
he’s dropin’ in and
scratching out just where needed and blurring the lines. This is a
masterful stroke where
he lays in a light, airy flavor that is just enough to add to the
emotion of this sincere
ballad. A ballad that rolls in off an analog record and lays the hiss
and pop of vinyl at
such a subtle level that you are forced to realize vinyl had a tribal
beat that layed it
down back in the day – telling us that not only is vinyl used
to play the beats, it
also gives/gave the beats. Add the highlights of Eric’s vocal
abilities coupled with
Charmian lilting Flute work and you get a taste of the power Fredalba
can weld with a
ballad as well. Progresion fades (progresses?) into Cut
Up Music. Storm and Shine again revisit Hardcore rock churning under a solid Chili Pepper Rap and giving the rage rock boys a run for their money. They all only wish they could Funk this Hard. The raw sound echoing down is like Rick James fronting Pearl Jam or Soundgarden. Temper that hard funk with the more straightforward, polished sound of Get Up (mixing in techno-dance, trance-trips), Prepare To Reactivate (dirty soul from the Lenny Kravitz school), Slide Your Breath (fusing Chic into Monster Rock territory a la` Garbage), and Revelation (a redemption of the soul borrowing vocal raps from from Jay-Z, Nelly, Eminem and a host of the more fluid artists on the scene today), and we have an album of major proportions presenting itself to a music culture that needs a conductor of the convergence. For if music is to flourish in the globalization of humanity, it must be able to blend and adapt to an audience that is itself blending and adapting. Too many times
we are forced to listen to
“the next big thing” when all it is, is the
recycling of the last big thing, or
the next to last big thing, or the next to last, last… you
get the picture. Fredalba
may not be the next big thing, but… “Are you ready?” “Play that beat.” “It goes
Boom, I do a warrior dance “Uptown
music for the downtown kids “Possibility
through positivity.” They certainly
have given us the blueprint for
the music that should be (the next big thing that is). As they proclaim
in their Anthem
for the beats generation(s), Uptown
Music: “Uptown
music for the downtown kids BUMP. Uptown
Music For
Downtown Kids by Fredalba *Shipping
&
Handling charges: |
