The New Mastersounds - 102%
Bristling heavy funk with abundant shades of afrobeat, soul jazz, boogaloo, and distorted rock color, 102% is the fifth full length album/cd effort by Britain’s most dangerous funk quartet The New Mastersounds. On the heels of their acclaimed 3rd studio album This Is What We Do and several tours of the US and Europe in 2005, the band was convinced a live offering was due and released Live at La Cova in early 2006. Continuing to make appearances at US festivals and on the funk-jamband club circuit into 2006 - including Langerado Music Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, and South By Southwest - on stage the band began stretching out, adding new twists and bops to many of the old favorites, and new dimensions to the interplay and groove development. The New Mastersounds were now pulling off three hour sets, mixing up infectious funk originals with their own arrangements of the soul-jazz classics, keeping the crowds dancing and attracting sit-ins by members of Phish and the Greyboy Allstars, as well as Karl Denson, Bryan Jordan (KDTU), Stanton Moore (Galactic) George Porter Jr (The Meters), Ivan Neville (Neville Brothers) and Papa Mali. Towards the end of 2006 the band returned to the studio to complete their fifth full length effort, from which the 7" 45rpm single “Talk is Cheap/Thirty Three” was released in November, to the delight of the DJ's and vinyl junkies. Led by guitar virtuoso Eddie Roberts, this telepathically tight quartet features plenty of Hammond grooves by B3 burner Bob Birch, with phat and heavy bass and drums courtesy of messers Pete Shand and Simon Allen respectively. Guest Rob Lavers on saxophone and flute adds the fifth flavor to several already toxic numbers. 102% is guaranteed to satisfy old fans and recruit plenty of new followers of funk and soul jazz, with a broad spectrum of pure vintage sounds and original hooks & grooves that just keep getting better and better! 102% will be a surefire hit with all their fans past and present - an impressive list that includes Keb Darge, Kenny Dope, Mr Scruff, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, DJ Shadow, Snowboy, Quantic, Richard Searling and many more groove-lovers across the globe.