The title of the brand new album of Sodré Funk Connection "Soul, Sweat & Cut the Crap" tells us just about everything important to know about the music they make: comes from the soul, requires energy and delivery, and is honest and direct. No tricks, no gimmicks, no special effects or artificial frameworks empty fashions.
This is the second album of Sodré Funk Connection after the auspicious debut "You Are Somebody" released in 2012. The debut record date a couple of years before, with the single "Lose It" that was designed with the participation of Rickey Calloway. And in all these years, the collective was polishing the real diamond that turned out to be from the outset: with countless drops of starts sweat on stage, with such gems as "Summer Days of Fun" to conquer space in our ears, hearts and hips and even with the unlikely hit resulting from the crossbreed with this original "soul boy" who is Paulo de Carvalho in the huge "Mão Negra".
The sound of Sodré Funk Connection is obviously channeled through large: James Brown and Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Eatta James, kings and queens that still are unchallenged references wherever you appreciate the power of the soul above noise of the lights. A noble lineage who held revolutions as the Civil Rights Movement and put a president in the White House and now is supported by true fighters of love as Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. The music of Sodré Funk Connection is the same strain, has the same nerve. As jazz or rock and roll, which became universal and globalized languages, also the soul here makes sense. Also sings in the churches. And church can be someplace where it exposes the soul. For a long time Cais Sodré Funk Connection made the Thursday night special fair pilgrimage time to a rhythm ceremony at Musicbox. That's when conquered fans. And from the stage to the studio it was a small step, dance. A dance step.
With "Soul, Sweat & Cut the Crap" this collective of soul brothers and sisters proves that it can grow and become even more perfect what was already an impeccable beauty: the metal sound more cohesive, more sophisticated, more sensual rhythms, melodies brighter. The songs - that in terms of authorship almost always result from the combination of musical and poetic talents of James Santos, João Gomes and João Cabrita - are powerful evocations of a tradition, but made from the present, as if time were a mere illusion "Take it Like a Man," "Soul Lady", "Ridin 'the Funkin' Bike" or "Like No Other" and "Do The Math" are bombs sugar to our ears, irresistible magnets to our feet and fill us with smiles. They are groove lessons, precise and fluid at the same time. As only the soul knows how to be.
João Gomes, Francisco Rebelo, Tiago Santos, João Cabrita, José Raminhos, Miguel Marques and Rui Alves are the unsurpasse instrumentalists. tasteful wells in which well know plunge. Ahead, the pure class of Silk and Tamin who inject soul into every issue as if the "Cais Sodré" was there somewhere next to Memphis, a mandatory place to spend the path of the Stax studios.
"Soul, Sweat & Cut the Crap is out in 2016, but could be out in 1966, 1978, 1995 or 3140. Doesn´t matter: music like this is not bound to time, only the soul of who she delivers.
Tracklist, Vinil
A1. Take it like a man
A2. Soul Lady
A3. Offbeat
A4. I'm done
A5. Ladies Man
A6. Ridin' a funkin Bike
B1. A Silk affair
B2. Don't give the Funk
B3. Like no other
B4. - Do the math
B5. One of these days
Bonus / Exclusive vinyl track
B6. Mãe Negra (ft. Paulo de Carvalho)