Boston’s The Macrotones are a totally groovy band with a kick-ass horn section. Their new LP is being pressed on vinyl as we speak, so be on the lookout for our full review soon. We checked out their previous record here (hint: we really dug it).
In the meantime, enjoy this live clip of the group playing The Middle East in Cambridge.
Rubblebucket has embraced the wave of YES that is crashing onto the shores of New York’s music scene. Just a few years ago the eclectic group could still be seen, although with smaller audiences, jumping off stages into the crowd, dropping onto the grass, and billowing wildly into their brass instruments. Since then, saxophonist and front woman Kalmia Traver has come into her own, embracing the kinetic, interactive live show that Rubblebucket swears by. If you thought they were fun to dance to well before the release of Omega La La, you’re in for even more of a treat now.
Traver used to keep her idiosyncrasies hidden behind a mass of hair and horn. Today, those characteristic quirks are the driving force behind a refined artistic vision that has turned Rubblebucket into an act that can entertain main stage festival crowds and late-night TV audiences just as easily as a basement full of kids. Their live shows are known to unleash an entire team of party facilitators, led by Neil Fridd of the band Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt!, complete with giant silver robots, light tunnels, light up vests, and much, much more.
The Macrotones
First Signs of Danger
Boston, MA
“Funky horns and Afrobeat rhythms”
The Macrotones have always been accessible – but that’s just it. They are unquestionably tight, a well-packaged Afrobeat machine from Boston. Their newest album, First Signs of Danger, is a good record, but something is missing – a level of energy, an attitude within innovation, a climax that doesn’t quite reach it’s proper peak. Something.
The album opens up exceptionally, The Macrotones funk up their outfit with various samples and stellar brass ensembles. Beginning with a deadly polyrhythm in “Flutenbier,” followed by “Lieber And Lee,” The Macrotones showcase honest and powerful instrumentalism backed by a uniform sense of timing. Other fun, interesting tracks are “Deadly,” “Survival” and “Praying Mantis.”
First Signs of Danger is the kind of summer CD you listen to on long drives, or traveling to a music festival. The Macrotones’ grasp on Afrobeat is admirable and their music is fun, somewhat quirky, but easily anticipated. First Signs of Danger is 12 songs deep and needs to be pushed further. Maybe this writer has high expectations, but if any Afrobeat orchestra has the moxie to really funk, it’s The Macrotones.
Don’t get it wrong – the album flows beautifully. It’s danceability and progressive multidimensionality hits you in the head with a snide kind of brassiness. First Signs of Danger symbolizes what could only hope to be the beginning of a more exuberant, soulful career for The Macrotones. (Young Cub Records)
Produced, engineered, and recorded by Craig Welsch at Hillside Sound Studio, Allston MA // Mastered by Steven Berson at Total Sonic Media, Brooklyn, NY // Album art by 21:24
