Review

Brooklyn Funk Essentials: Intuition

After years of making concise organic sounding dance music, this long awaited LP brings their experiences all together on one record that reaches maturation point whilst keeping the funk experience and groove at its heart.

The slew of fantastic singles they’ve drip fed us with recently, featuring vocalists Alison Limerick and Desmond Foster are all featured.These vignettes are now engraved in vinyl and they are all here. The Go Go brilliance of ‘Rollin’ (Love Will Be There) and the disco inflected ‘How Happy’ and the uplifting and Afrobeatish ‘Scream’ and the foot stomping ‘AA Side Single’. The horn fuelled and taut rhythmic outbursts with strong bass lines is niche but wrapped beautifully and hand carved. They break down the sound of the genre, and create their own original pearls in the process.

Their music has a certain SPARK and it has a deep flow full of weird and delightful ideas and sounds bred for the radio. The tracks are fresh, exciting ,tuneful harmonically interesting and the instrumentation and ensemble work is first-rate. The band are in the zone and at their zenith flexing their funk mastery on this very fine and encapsulating album.

"Intuition" (itself a slinky jazz jiving joy) becomes the seventh album by this cult Swedish-American soul and funk band and is masterminded and produced by the upbeat and inventive Lati Kronlund and essentially, it’s a real touch of class.
Words Emrys Baird