Vulfpeck - The Beautiful Game Bethanni Grecynski

Vulfpeck
The Beautiful Game
2016
Spotify

When it comes to Vulfpeck you can expect a couple of things: 1. It will be fucking weird and 2. It will be fucking great. This new album The Beautiful Game is no exception. Even from the cover art you can tell this is not going to be your typical album because these are not your typical boys. With classical training and a huge love of funk precision this band simply cooks no matter what they decide to attack. "Conscious Club" is the first all out dance track and it is incredibly satisfying with crazy electronic vocals, a soulful hook and a bass line provided by Joe Dart that is absolutely relentless. This is the kind of song people strive for when making a dance record, something that combines all the fun aspects of disco while still maintaining a musicianship that is unparalleled. There are many times where you assume they are going to descend into some kind of funk exploration on the album and venture into jam band territory, but not with Vulfpeck, they are to disciplined and honestly to good for that. The crew that Vulfpeck surround themselves with like Antwaun Stanley, Joey Dosik, Christine Hucal and Rich Hinman all bring their talents to these tracks making them even better.

At 10 songs and only 35 minutes The Beautiful Game is super tight not leaving an ounce of fat anywhere on the record. The deep groove on "El Chepe" goes on perhaps a bit to long, it also happens to be the longest track on the album at 4:48, but when a pocket gets that deep you can't help but sit in it. In typical Vulf fashion the band announced this record last month along with a Kickstarter giving away copies of the record for a $10.00 donation. It's another example of Vulfpeck doing the damn thing on their own in a world where labels and streaming sites have tried to monopolize the industry. There is probably less pop ready tracks on this album, but all that means is that Vulfpeck are so deep in the music they are creating that everything else goes out the window. "Aunt Leslie" features Antwaun Stanley doing one of his more out there vocal performances and has a trombone solo from Bethanni Grecynski that is really something special. The album ends with "Cory Wong" who band have proclaimed is The Beautiful Game's Billy Preston, which is extremely high praise. It's another hit for Vulfpeck and one that should be on damn near all your playlists very very soon.

8.8 out of 10