The Bamboos - Night Time People [Pacific Theatre]

Put on the circuit via the Pacific Theatre-imprint on July 06th, 2k18 is "Night Time People", the most recent album outing by the Australian Funk / Soul powerhouse internationally known and appreciated as The Bamboos which have been featured on these pages with the video for their album opener "Lit Up" earlier this year. Together, the nine-piece outfit creates a hefty, seductive and muscular thirteen track journey with the last three tracks being variations and versions on "Broken" featuring different vocalists like J-Live, Urthboy or Teesy on microphone lead duties, the only guest appearances on the album which is consistently focusing on lead singer Kylie Auldist over its whole course, a clear alteration in comparison to the bands former, oftentime guest appearance-heavy longplay outings. With "Stranded" we see The Bamboos drive off into lands of everlasting sunshine Pop reminiscent of the notorious "Like Ice In The Sunshine" vibewise, getting a "Golden Ticket" for spreading nothing but deep love whilst performing "Salvage Rites" on a Disco-led, slightly psychedelic and dreamy tip. "Pony Up" sees the band bringing some hard hitting Funk breaks to the table which surely are about to be resampled by HipHop producers soons, the albums title track comes across as a well funky uptempo jam for packed dancefloors, "Backfired" caters smokey, muscular Soul vibes and epic brass section sequences for bourbon-fueled late night crowds and the "War Story" tells unexpected musical tales from a sunnier side of life, spreading nothing but good vibes and positivity. Furthermore "You Should've Been Mine" gets into panoramic broadway mood, "San Junipero" is the only instrumental cut on the album, presenting more of a laid back, tropical beach vibe before the three takes on "Broken" fuse HipHop, Soul / Funk and one of the most beautiful piano lines we've heard in ages and therefore stand out as our favorite cuts on this one, especially the J-Live version. Check!