A Well-Rested Life Void of Sleep...

...would be the only way for me to satisfy my appetites for music. It's like being a vampire during endless daytime; there's no way you can go out for fresh blood and the hunger grows and the thirst is so torturous. Only, I can get fresh blood, but it never seems to be enough. There is always some craving, some urge. One week it will be an inability to get enough classic HipHop and another I'll be begging the gods for Neo-Classical pacifiers for my soul. But the method of discovery varies along with the numerous styles of music.

This week, I found the coolest new Funk outfit in The Heliocentrics. This troupe of Psych-Jazz Funkateers is led by their masterful drummer, Malcolm Catto, as it seems only a group of this ilk should be. Catto might be the coolest fuckin' drummer I currently know of. Now, I know I'm about 18 months late on this one, but believe you me, this is a perfect example of how hard it is to keep up with everything and drink 7000 empty calories of whiskey a week.
So, there's a tight little horn section that sounds as though they'd fit right in on a 60's Mingus album or a 70's Miles Fusion exploration. But the great thing is, they don't get in the way. Some horn sections are like that annoying fuckin' kid in the front of the class who raises his hand for every gotdamn question the teacher has. Think James Brown horn funk, but a bit more understated. The keyboards and synthesizers are absolutely killer. Played with enough digital and analog diffusion and tonal discomfort, they keep the out there Out There. The guitar has a nice, slick-toned Telecaster sound that is more Morricone than Booker T. This gumbo of styles and sounds may seem too much to combine and handle, but The Heliocentrics pull it off with such dexterity that they must have been born juggling sounds.
A definite. A hands down winner. If the Poets of Rhythm had done a bit more acid with Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder, not Johnny Depp), this would be the record, after some tripped out HipHop producers got ahold of it, of course. And before it's final, there'd be a session with some folks from Broadcast to give it one more odd-ass spice in the mix.

But a fantastic mix it is.