Brandon Coleman - Resistance - 2x LP Vinyl

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SKU:c0015819 ,UPC:

Info

SKU:
c0015819
UPC:
5054429132939

Specifications

Batch, Album, Artist, Format,

Specifications

Album:
Resistance
Artist:
Brandon Coleman
Format:
12" Vinyl
UPC:
5054429132939

Description

Resistance, the sophomore LP from funk-jazz polymath Brandon Coleman, begins with "Live For Today", and "Live For Today" begins with weightlessness. There's no gravity; just motion. An orchestral swell sends you floating through space, but this space isn't some endless void bereft of light and substance. It's a kaleidoscopic space of swirling colors and iridescent planets and strange cosmic shapes without name or origin. Then, a beat bullets forward, and these colors and planets and shapes start speeding past you. It's unclear whether you're moving or if your surroundings are. But it doesn't matter; it's the feeling of motion itself -- a free fall where there is no fear of the earth, where there is no fear of anything at all -- that counts.

"Just come with me / And baby you'll see / That the future's far away / There's no time for us to waste," Coleman sings, his voice vocoderized but still remarkably distinct. It's a lyric that not only summarizes his philosophy, but also the philosophy that guided the synth-funk auteurs who inspired him: George Clinton, Herbie Hancock, and Zapp's Roger Troutman, among a host of others who emblazoned their album covers with cosmonauts (think Hancock's Flood and Thrust), flying saucers (Parliament's Mothership Connection), and other unidentifiable yet oddly stylish spacecraft (Graham Central Station's My Radio Sure Sounds Good to Me).

For these artists, the future was "far away" but never out of reach. Always, it was something to strive for. Through their music, which spanned across genres and decades but invariably foregrounded the synthesizer as a means of reshaping reality, they surged toward the future as they saw it, never content to waste their time with Top 40 tropes or mainstream conventions. They surrounded themselves with science fiction iconography, but they backed up it up with music that sounded like it was beamed in from another world. You can hear the same restless experimentalism on Resistance, a memorable, albeit inconsistent, record by an unabashed futurist steeped in funk, jazz, electronica, and everything in-between.

An L.A. native, Coleman made his name as a fixture in Kamasi Washington's acclaimed prog-jazz band. He stepped out on his own with 2011's Self Taught, a record that, while intermittently compelling, made virtually no impact. Since then, Coleman has kept busy, working with jazz luminaries across the west coast and marquee names like Flying Lotus and Thundercat. But this constant stream of collaborations, with indie and pop musicians alike, took a toll on him.

"I've been in the studio a lot in recent years, writing with this or that artist and I always felt constrained, like I had to compromise," he explained. "This time I just wanted to create something that was really free, something original, to incorporate all the styles that I represent, because often when I've tried to do that in the past, it's been met with resistance."

Coleman, for the most part, achieves what he set out to do. Each song on Resistance feels playful and unencumbered, like the work of an artist given full license to indulge in his eccentricities. "Just Reach for the Stars" is a glittering mid-tempo strut that turns the dance floor into a place of worship for some cosmic being. "Giant Feelings", the album's lead single, melds horns, strings, digitized wails, and an implacable backbeat into something, at once, cohesive and falling apart at the seams. Tracks like "Addiction" and "Sexy" are forged from sheer funk exuberance.
A1Live For Today
A2All Around The World
A3A Letter To My Buggers
B1Addiction
B2Sexy
B3There's No Turning Back
C1Resistance
C2Sunday
C3Just Reach For The Stars
D1Love
D2Giant Feelings (feat. Patrice Quinn & Techdizzle)
D3Walk Free