| Issue
#75
Jun.
'05
“Are you
ready?”
“Play
that beat.”
“It goes
Boom, I do a warrior dance
My native tongue will put you into a trance.”
“Uptown
music for the downtown kids
For the beats we make
And the life they give.”
“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 Los Angeles, but of America, and to an extent the world, and lays down a
tribute to
the underground beats scene. This is P-Funk. This is Old School Rap
pumped through the
‘00s style street art and delivered as entertainment from the
ages of the masses for
the masses of the ages.
“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. Tiffin
“Rooster” Roley
(guitar) would be highly coveted by Trip-Hop and
Rage-Rock boys such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, and
Linkin Park, for
the hardcore guitar riffs, shreds, and runs he lays out. Charmain
Callon (flute) is
the cog that spins everything around while keeping it together, and
leader Eric Balfour (vocals) displays the vocal
range, chops,
and rap syncopation that keeps the musical
compositions and the world wise lyrical content on the edge of
introspection, progression,
and revelation.
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 Angels. Just to underscore that, we have
Charmain’s
flute work that soars over and above the (Hollywood) Hills, while
Eric’s vocals dish
the rap in an all too cool manner that shows that a proper rhyme
dropped in a Rockin’
beat will get the blood flowing into a fist pumpin’
celebration every time.
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
HERE WE GO
Descendents of a mad man
HERE WE GO
We got ourselves a new plan
HERE WE GO
Its time to get out of hand
HERE WE GO”
Which leads to
the social message of:
“Is it wrong to kill a man , who's killed a man
before
Is it wrong to kill a baby in three months or is it four
Is it wrong to get by,
Is it wrong to get high,
Is it wrong that they die,
Is it wrong to ask why”
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. 1:38 of
music cut together inside the studio (but which, I’m sure
could be pulled off live)
which serves as a kind of instrumental introduction of the band,
allowing each artist to
stretch in all directions. And let me tell you, it JAMS! –
this is a small gem to
covet – not to be missed!
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
My native tongue will put you into a trance.”
“Uptown
music for the downtown kids
For the beats we make
And the life they give.”
“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
From the LBC to the Brooklyn Bridge
Uptown music for the downtown kids
Put your hands in the air
And yell BUMP THAT SHIT!”
BUMP.
Uptown Music For
Downtown Kids by Fredalba
is available for: $10.98
+s/h*
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