Daniel Ojeda
More than a lot of other music, the hybrid sounds of funk — with upbeat soulful rhythms, quick jazz bass lines and a wide mix of instruments — give you a chance to get up and get moving.
Plainly put, funk is dance music on demand.
And on that note, the Madison-based funk band known as steez deftly delivers with its new album, Little World. The group will release the album at the High Noon Saloon on Nov. 23.
Straight out the gate with their lead single “Last Night,” the five-piece ensemble jumps into an almost dizzying display of instrumentation featuring quick synthesizer work, a near-frantic saxophone and a steady, driving drum line.
Lyrically, the song recounts a man’s attempts to impress a woman over the course of a night out and how well he thought it went. Halfway through the nine-minute track — that’s right, nine minutes — all of the musicians get a chance to show their skills with short instrument solos.
After setting that fast-paced, frenzy-ish tone, the album carries on through another seven similarly excellent yet varied tracks. Some have lyrics, some don’t.
Speaking of vocals, Little World, which is the band’s fifth album, is their first where keyboardist Matt Williams uses a voice-synthesizer talkbox — yes, that same thing Roger Troutman of Zapp used to sound hiply robotic on “Computer Love.”
In our post-autotune trend world, Williams knows to use voice augmentation sparingly, and thankfully does so.
In addition to Williams, steez is made up of four other multi-talented men: Steve Neary on
guitar and vocals, Chris Sell on bass, Andrzej Benkowski on saxophone, keyboards and vocals, and Alex Roberts on drums.
On the new album, there are a couple of two-part track pairings. First is “Ronsong,” which features distinctly different ‘human’ and ‘robot’ versions. The first is a keyboard-heavy jam about conceiving a plan to make trouble and be heard, while the other is a toe-tapping, horn-heavy track featuring talkboxed lyrics that can’t quite be understood.
The two “Movin’ On” songs (Part I and II) are largely without lyrics, offering the bandmates a chance to switch things up tempo-wise, sometimes slowing it down to showcase one member.
In all, Little World is a downright funky, fun ride that offers a lot of energy but isn’t overbearing.
