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When the Levitators launched their debut EP last December in their hometown of Adelaide, their live energy whipped the dancefloor into a frenzy. After only one year of playing together, this fresh breakbeat act has crafted a sound that draws from chemical, funky and even world-music influences. The production values and energy are high in this recording, but to maintain interest on the home stereo, the lads probably could have spent more time on some of the songs’ arrangements.
The disc opens with ‘Aqualung’, a song with no apparent link to the infamous Jethro Tull album of the same name. The track is chemical breaks with a live kit sound, and the production sounds great. Unfortunately I find the short looped sawtooth-synth bassline wears thin quickly, and the song is very busy and wanting for a sense of direction. Keep reading though, ‘cause this problem evaporates by track three.
‘Lightnin’ Boy’, with its shouts of ‘Take it to the bridge’, ‘Oh yeah’ and swirling organ is like an accelerated tribute to James Brown and days when funk was gritty and raw. This time it’s the busy organ lines and bass that crowd the track, and draw me to the ‘skip’ button. Patience is rewarded though, and there’s a nice ‘chill out’ in the middle of the track which creates and effective ambient contrast to the band’s regularly relentless playing.
Winding back the bpm, in steps ‘Raggamuffin’ hanging delays on some live brass and serving up the dub. The key to this track’s success is the space that is created… something I found the previous tracks wanting. Surprisingly, the dub vamp yields to more of a soul-funk ‘chorus’. Despite the unlikely fusion, the track hangs together and feels more like a song (and less like a jam) than earlier efforts. Just as the track’s title professes, a panning ragamuffin MC drops in for some verbalizing too. A superb sax solo brings us back to jams-ville, and subsequent soul-funk inspired lead breaks run to the song’s end.
Closing the disc is ‘Mango Chutney’, with its mealtime reference to the cultural flavour of the track. It’s tabla and Indian strings meets cruisey d’n’b and this track reads as the Levitators’ greatest success. With a palatable dose of jazzy dissonance, there’s an allusion here to the work of The Bird or The Baggsmen, and the electric piano sits nicely between the yawning strings and roomy bass line. A superb sitar line takes the song to a higher plane, before it’s matched with the unlikely voice of a buzzing paddy synth.
For a debut CD, the Levitators surprised even themselves with this recording. Originally planning for a demo-only release, the recording worked out so well that they decided to keep going and package it for retail release. The musicianship is undeniably sound, the recording sounds plush, and if this is what they’re capable of after a year, I can’t wait to hear where the Levitators will be in twelve months time.
