| · The future is then, or how I learned to love the bomb and forget the ’90s.
Will Holland’s early recordings under the Quantic moniker were, more often than not, better Ninjatune tracks than those being released by artists actually signed to Ninjatune. Holland proved that he had an amazing command of the genre while being able to bring funk to the fore of his leftfield, downtempo enterprise.
Aside from being one of the most prolific artists to emerge from any electronic genre in a few years, Holland has expanded his musical focus and repertoire to now include the emerging U.K. vintage groove, lo-fi movement. His Quantic Soul Orchestra was proof he could do in one take what some haven’t been able to do in years – re-energize not only the music, but the spirit of the music, making solid organic dance music with a band (admittedly, it’s hardly a bold new concept, but one whose revival seems well timed and much needed).
His current musical project, Limp Twins, essentially delves deeper into Holland’s passion source. Conceived and executed as a project with longtime friend and Birmingham singer-songwriter Russell Porter, the Twins hone Holland’s freakishly clever ability to make new music that sounds old.
Tales from Beyond the Groove plays like an AM radio, fuzzed-out, funk-soul rock album. Russell Porter’s absolutely lazy vocal delivery gives the album an easy sense of lounge-lizard laissez-faire and Holland’s production skills, not to mention his competent multi-instrumental ability, make this an album built for joy and built upon a passion that both Porter and Holland have for the music.
Standouts (and there are many on this one) include "Another Day in the Life of Mr. Jones," "The Limping Song" and "If it Ain’t Broke, Break it." "Another day in the life," about a bank robbery gone wrong, is ripe for the next Guy Ritchie or Quentin Tarantino soundtrack and "Living Well" has already found its way into a U.K. cosmetics commercial.
While it’s easy to find fault with the album’s unapologetic vintage style, Tales from Beyond the Groove is more than a nostalgia trip, it’s a re-envisioning of a musical era that was lost in the shuffle of Three Dog Night saccharine and goblin rock. This is an album that proves itself clever enough to entertain with pop sensibilities and at the same time uses funk to teach a new generation of music lovers the way things were before the music industry and radio became too genre specific and too segregated.
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