From The Rooftops by The Funk Ark
LABEL: ESL Music

The Funk Ark, newly signed to Thievery Corporation’s ESL Music, are a classic-sounding afrobeat/world funk group with a modern sheen, as well incorporating a number of different genres, especially Latin music. A popular and gifted session musician – having worked with a lot of big names such as Mya, Ocote Soul Sounds, Raheem Devaughn, and others, and has become a powerful force in contemporary jazz-funk – keyboardist, songwriter, and band frontman Will Rast brings the same level of professionalism to The Funk Ark. The music is gritty, the grooves are redolent of the sixties and seventies, but the songwriter is taut, the players are accomplished, and the production is clean.

Will Rast’s playing throughout the album is mostly subdued, acting as the sturdy base upon which the rest of the music can successfully build— though, for an eleven-musician band, it never builds to a point of bloating, which says a lot about the clarity of vision here. Most of the musicians play in an equally mellow way, masking Rast’s groove-soaked, deep-rooted songwriting and giving the album a sense of subtlety. The solos are subtle, too, never forcing the spotlight but always making clear the talent of these musicians. “A Blade Won’t Cut Another Blade” has a raunchy sax solo, for example, which for sixteen bars is the sole horn instrument. But as the solo continues, it melds into the rest of the driving horn layers, eventually fading out with a howl and thus emphasizing the unity of the music. Horn solos abound throughout the album.

Indeed, nodding to the history of their idiom, horns serve as the lead instruments of each of these ten songs. And if any complaint could be made, it’s that the timbres of these tracks are all very similar. Just as one example, Rast rarely deviates from two or three keyboard timbres. But if anything, this lack of contrast with respect to texture strengthens the subtlety of the music, again masking the powerful grooves and amount of variety on display here. And at the same time, the group does a good job of exploring the different nooks in their sound palette: “Funky DC,” featuring a DC-repping rap from Asheru, sometimes hints at a space funk style. “Pavement,” meanwhile, toward the album’s end, is the mellowest offering on the album, driven not by the horns at the forefront but by a soulful guitar and Rast’s twinkling keyboard.

“...it’s definitely not dog-days-of-July music, but perfect for mid-August, when the East Coast sun still beats down on you but there’s a crisp autumnal taste to the air, a briskness.”

The Funk Ark’s Latin influence becomes apparent in the middle of the album, beginning on “El Beasto,” the minor-key lead lick almost entirely eclipsed by the horns and the 3/4 shuffling drums. As on other songs, Rast lets a few sparks fly from his keyboard for a few seconds here and there, though never breaking into a full-on solo. “Carretera Libre,” on the other hand, is like a soundtrack for having your head in the clouds. In one of the most satisfying moments on the album, Rast finally solos toward the end of the track, his style brimming with subtlety but also unmistakable flair. After his solo there is an effective pause, one of Rast’s songwriting tropes: a song will build to its breaking point and Rast will use silence as a means of deconstructing its elements, allowing it either to close out (as on "Carretera Libre") or again building the tension.

Besides the respite the pretty “Pavement” allows, the grooves on the album are relentless, but the pace is neither frantic nor breakneck: it’s definitely not dog-days-of-July music, but perfect for mid-August, when the East Coast sun still beats down on you but there’s a crisp autumnal taste to the air, a briskness. And to its credit, despite the subtlety of the music, it’s simple, clear-cut and infectious — Will Rast has clearly honed his ear throughout his long, storied career. The Funk Ark is a blade of groove that has been sharpened not only by numerous live sets and touring which build the chemistry between the musicians, but by Rast’s ear for incisive leads, efficient song structures, and, most importantly, catchy grooves. Definitely recommended.


REVIEWED BY MANUEL ABREU
MANUEL‘S FAVORITE TRACKS:  “El Beasto” • “Katipo (The Spider)” • “Pavement”

FREE MP3: “El Beasto”