- Veteran Brisbane beatsmith Sam Pogioli returns. The blueprint for his new EP, Mt Glorious, is not radically different from that of his last, Natural Selections: once again he’s a producer plus, folding a variety of organic instrumentation into the upbeat electro-funk along with some famous friends. That’s a fine formula and it rolls out blissfully under what must be just the right title. When I think about it, I’m not really sure why I have such positive associations with the little rainforest peak that is Brisbane’s Mt Glorious, but if I had to set the place to music, this is kinda how I’d want to do it.
Opener Teal Sunrise makes the connection literal, throwing in humid samples of bird calls and insects chittering, which is slightly ironic, given that they are canned and, oh hey, then it mimics them, live on the flute - reversals galore, doing my head in! The slow, aimless ambience might not be particularly representative of the rest of the EP, but it does introduce a few musicians, most notably Matt Luff on the flute. This will soon swell into a small orchestra, helping to put the whole record is together.
The EP’s title track is also its lead single and is a studied balance between the ambient warmth that’s already been established and an upbeat funkiness. There’s so many different lines running through it, it’s quite difficult to tell where the divide between the organic and the synthetic is. The performers, including the Meraki string quartet, Sam on a variety of percussion, along with his programmed beats and housey vocals snatches which were actually recorded live by Hannah Macklin, aka MKO Sun, all of these come together into a rather warmly grinning whole that it’s a bit difficult to say no to.
Speaking of grinning, SMILE ups the warmth just that little bit further and the string flourishes would really make it pure disco, but for the steel drums which are joined by marimba and synths and the combination make it some kind of happily shambolic, world-beat monster. It’s like Sam just kept adding stuff until it’s kind of ridiculous, but in a positive way.
Those famous friends I mentioned are pretty significant, say hello Georgia Anne Muldrow and Dudley Perkins. Muldrow is a formidable musician and although I don’t know exactly what she did on the track Rising Up, outside of that soulful vocal, it’s perfectly serivceable and gets wound into the intriguingly twisting synth lines. I gotta say, however, all the space made for Perkins is a bit of a let down. This would’ve been cookie-cutter rap back in 1994 “Make no mistakes we in it to win it, take down all these wack MCs.” Now the braggadocio sounds bizarrely out-of-place, especially because because it’s so smug: “Witness the birth of real rap all your dumb music you can did that and all my CDs you need to go get that.” Well this sure isn’t encouraging me. Finally, the line “I write these rhymes so that I can live well / and help some that don’t do as well”, who might you be talking about there? Yeah, you’re a real humanitarian.
Jordan Rakei is the other big name. He and Sampology go way back and the tune My Place was actually recorded back when Rakei was still based in Brisbane (was it really that long ago?). It’s actually very nice to hear Rakei’s usually soulful-to-the-point-of-sadness sound have its frown turned all the way upside-down by Sampology’s upbeat musical treatment. There’s an easygoing Stevie Wonder-ish something about the blend of keys and vocals, even if the lyrics are as weightily philosophical as we’ve come to expect from Rakei.
Closing instrumental After The Storm is a jazzy final twist, keeping the funk vamping in the background as sax and rhodes solos noodle along. The funk pulls everyone together for a big finish, adorned, again, not just with Hannah Macklin’s vocals but oohs and ahs from all of the Australian Voices choir.
Like Mt Glorious itself, I feel like I’ve been here before with this EP, but I’m really happy to come back again. Both Sampology and that little strip of rainforest on the outskirts of Brisbane are quite a lot like I remember and hey, I’m jazzed to get back whenever I can.
- Chris Cobcroft.