- Melbourne is Australia’s Europe – winters are cold and damp, summers can be similar. Yet, Melbourne has nurtured some of the best funk outfits in Australia, Saskwatch, Cookin’ On 3 Burners and The Bamboos. Why Melbourne should be the hot spot of funk is beyond my ken, but I am grateful for the blossoming work of these top class musicians.
Night Time People is the eighth Bamboos release, the first since 2013 which is pretty much just them. With Kylie Auldist’s extraordinary power up front, Night Time People rolls from one groove to the next, traversing the geography of contemporary music to which funk contributed and also borrowed from as well. Funk, born out of the fusion of pure rock & roll with r'n'b brass and rhythm, has many outlets - lending its swaying vibe to the female power pop of the 1960s and then laying the foundation for 1970s classic disco. Across the ten main tracks on this album you are going to hear a lot of that explored.
Golden Ticket evokes the sounds of Dusty Springfield in her USA recording heyday, and Pony Up is KC & The Sunshine Band to a T. Throw in a bit of Parliament with Backfired and War Story is Motown Diana Ross & The Supremes right down to the tambourine shaking away in the mix. While this might sound like it’s a musical Frankensteining of the funk, soul and pop genres, each track stands solid on its own and it might give you call-backs to other artistes but that, for me, shows just how strong the musicianship is with this nine piece “bunch of friends who just like making music together”, as their website blurb puts it.
The title track has Auldist starting in a very low register, almost fooling you into thinking it’s a male vocal before stepping it up into her trademark powerhouse belt, and this album truly showcases just what a gift her voice is. Where on previous releases they have brought in guest vocalists on single releases, Night Time People is Kylie Auldist’s time to shine, and shine she does. Only on the penultimate track, an instrumental San Junipero (a bit of a Vegas show room closer type) and the next single Broken does her voice not feature solo. That single raises the difficult topic of mental health, recognising our own frailties, being able to ask for help and emerging stronger and able to thrive in a challenging world. Bamboos’ leader Lance Ferguson invited MCs from the urban music scene based in different corners of the world to share their view of that “brokenness” – Atlanta‘s J-Live (the official single release), Sydney MC Urthboy and fast-rising Berlin MC/singer/producer Teesy (who raps in German… ausgezeichnet!), and the CD issue of the album has a bonus version with Féfé, a French singer and rapper originally from Nigeria.
The Bamboos have created an album for those night time people who prefer a buzzing nightclub to the snoring buzzsaw of a lazy partner sleeping the long winter night away. It’s catchy, it’s groovy and it’s still a wonder to me that staid, formal Melbourne has the best funk and soul music in Australia, and I am happy to keep wondering while listening to gems such as this.
- Blair Martin.