Half stepping from Chicago Illinois, these boys peddle that live instruments as samples groove in a seriously heavy way. The band is made up of Elliot Ross- guitar/keys/bass, Thomas Faulds- drums, Charles Gorczynski-woodwinds/keys and Chris Merrill- bass.

Inspired by the sounds of Madlib, J Dilla and Yesterdays Quintet their sound is raw and heavy yet very organic thanks to the use of live instruments over a purely digital set up (my speakers have set up a mushroom farm since picking this up!)

The tracks bring to my mind dusty widescreen pictures of back in the day secret agents, hustling against double crossing  super villains with the lens flare cranked up to ten. This is a big city sound.

You can pick up a copy of this must have gem from the bands site here…

www.spinachprince.com

Heres a taster of one of the tracks from the album..’Ghanina’-

Clocking in at just over 30 mins Workshop – 1 is a downtempo rip tide of sound and melody. The more I listen to it the further down I am dragged to its dusty depths. It’s got it all..acoustic workouts..psyche overtones..string sections..swathes of melancholic soundscapes and as for what drops in at 15:06, well I am picturing a ragtime band that thought to hell with it..dropped some acid and got busy with the hipsters on the corner..Marvelous and dirty and all in the space of 2mins.

Ryan tells me he had quite a few snippets of songs and ideas that worked as little phrases and so mixed them together to make an imagined soundtrack of sorts. Hopefully with time permitting he will be making a series of it. Well it has certainly been the soundtrack to my creative output this week and is a real grower on the ears. You can grab a free copy of the album by clicking the download link below……….

WORKSHOP-1 download