Sharon Jones And The Dap Kings "Naturally"

Sharon Jones And The Dap-Kings "Naturally" (2005)
download link
rs / 192kbps / 54.9mb / slsk

Label: Daptone
Producer: Bosco Mann
Tracks: 10 (check: Amazon)

woah. funk revival 101 plus 1! forget david holmes and his pseudo (but addictive!) 60s spy-jazz riffs. this is a producer who's such in a denial that he's in the 2000s, he even dresses up like in the 50s. bosco mann knows pioneering funk and soul records. hell, he LIVES it. with an impressive cv of catalogues of this kind, i'm surprised he doesnt get contracted for retro movie remakes that we get an abundant of these days.

the dap kings are full of riff-hooks that would make any heist movie starring george clooney suddenly seem so full of credibility and true stylisations. sorry mr holmes, your filmscoring in oceans12 was brilliant, but bosco mann is such a better liar about his age when it comes to his productions. and he doesnt loop breakbeats either. respect.

of course, sharon jones's amazing heavily-motown-styled vocals and the dap kings' brilliant era-manipulation musicability adds to the effectiveness of this record, but still - who would think of NOT recording the piano with stereo mic-ing these days?! i dont think you could even get mono pianos in even software samplers anymore! bosco mann is crazy. the only things missing from this record are vinyl warps and crackles.

hard-panned melodic instruments (really!), near-mono non-confrontational drums, intentionally lack of bottom-end throughout - all contribute to this very dated sound on the record (and that's a good thing). i particularly like the non-over compressed of ms jones's vocals and the reverb treatment she's getting. the whole band apparently, is magic live. and on this record the producer just makes it scream exactly that. actually, the more i think about it, the more i feel that this record is a 180° flip of what modern music production is these days. and that's just a beautiful breath of fresh air. as much as i try to keep reminding myself while listening, that these tracks were recorded in only the last few years, i couldn't. i seriously could not.

the pattern i see these days with records like this is that, it's far much easier to make a record 'timeless' today - something that all producers (should) strife for. just make it somewhat (retro) dated, and today's ears will consider it 'timeless'. contradictory, i know, having 'dated' and 'timeless' in the same description, but music post-2000 is fucked up anyway.

from my (rather narrow) personal musical experience and exposure, the only other retro-remake of this magnitude worth mentioning is 4 hero's "les fleur" record. even that one sounds too modern for it's own good now after listening to "naturally". and this is 4 hero we're talking about here. their 60s-70s-80s funk soul record production knowledge is pristine. or so i've i thought.

mr bosco mann has done it again. he may not be jack-of-all-trades (it's something that's somewhat of an insult to a producer these days, if you're NOT a jack-of-all-trades. weird.) but at least he's a master of one. and a very skillful master at that. if i was him, i'd keep doing what i'm doin, and just wait til the next 1960s funk soul trend to make a comeback in 2012. if not, to hell with it. my name is bosco mann, and i make fucking cool music, bitch.