ESCORT
ESCORT
NOVEMBER 15, 2011
If it is not clear by now let's make sure everyone is informed: we here at RUSTYSCAGE.COM love the sounds of the 70's with Disco Punk and Funk, the driving force that influenced our musical youth. So when the buzz started flying in regards to ESCORT, there was little doubt we would be reviewing their debut CD.
Disco is the foundation of their music and it is clearly the predominate monopoly that drives each track. This is only the bare bones of the style that emits from their feature debut. There are layers of 80's MTV culture that do not force the music out of the disco era but adds subtitles. "Makeover" is drawn from Donna Summer's "I Feel Love", her 1977 hit, but it is peppered over with 80's mix of fun and storytelling. This is their take on the music that became another leg in the journey to where we are now.
This album uses styles from two different eras, binding them together while not forgetting to dot the I's and cross the T's. The final frontier is how driven they are not to isolate the sound as they never forget to keep the overall experience fresh. Jamiroquai has used the same basic philosophies, but was more driven by the harder, edgy funk beats that would pound through the ear drums of club goers everywhere. The two bands do enjoy lengthy tracks, giving club DJ's everywhere more than enough to choose from when building their mixes.
Pop music should be fun as it was through the two decades that most influenced ESCORT. Too much of what kids (who are the biggest listeners of pop sounds) hear in today's music is full of bleeps and, when artists can get away with it, fowl language. There was a day when we would listen to the latest artists and occasionally get a Shit, Damn or Ass lyric, leaving us excited that maybe we were getting away with listening to something our parents would not approve of. The great artists of the past would record alternative versions such as The Charlie Daniels Band's "Uneasy Rider" or "The Devil went down to Georgia." There was no bleeping, just fresh versions with substitute lyrics, allowing kids to listen without the harsher language. If there is one thing that will get me to change the station (not that I listen to much radio) it is more than one bleep per song.
"Cocaine Blues" does little to reference the drug but builds from INFORMATION SOCIETY's song "A Knife & a Fork" from their 1990 release, Hack. The band draws bits and pieces from other sources of the past to put a unique spin together, making it noteworthy in today's music scene. In these times of reduced incomes and gas prices soaring to record numbers, this band allows us to go back to a time when music was simply music. Knowing now that for those who struggled through the 70's with alternate license plate gas fill-up days and wages unable to meet the demands of prices, the light was kept alive by the sounds of pop music.
European clubs are dictating the power beat as a necessity to draw patrons in. It has been this way for quite awhile, but only now are American bands picking up steam so bands like ESCORT are straying from the language and gangster styles that have begun to control the airwaves, concentrating more on the demands of European dance clubs.
Each track offers a unique glimpse into select sounds of the past while adding power Congo folds that give distinction to several songs. DJ's will dissect this release with everything it contains and it could take them a year before they would need to reuse any part as it has so many potential uses. In any track the listener can pick out the likes of Curtis Mayfield, HALL & OATES, WILD CHERRY, HEATWAVE, THE STYLISTICS, EARTH WIND & FIRE, ADAM & THE ANTS, and DURAN DURAN in numerous places on this disc.
The guitar rhythms are drawn solely from the 70's pop music of the disco/funk era. The drum tracks are timing perfection that is 80's personified but gritty enough to reflect the changing style of the mid 70's. "Love in Indigo" is a medley of every pop song from the Top 40 from 1976-1989. "A little dab will do ya" seems to be the basic foundation that builds this song. Yet they found a way to simplify it to maturity. It is as if they threw hundreds of bars of music from every year into a crock pot, simmered it to perfection, then dished it out for a tasty late night dinner.
If you have listened to music from the past four decades and decide to take this one for a ride, there will be many times your ears will perk up in recognition of sounds you have heard before but in a refreshing new context.
RUSTY
11/15/11