Onno Smit, Bram Bosman, Cody Vogel & Alviz are Lefties Soul Connection. Four Nordic funk practitioners whose scorching cover of ‘Organ Donor’ by DJ Shadow (via original sample source composer Georgio Moroder) was one of the best reinterpretations of a tune in the past two years. A follow up album, Hutspot went on to sell over 10,000 units and gather attention from DJs and funk/soul fans far and wide. Fast forward to 2007 and the quartet have released their second full length album on the respected Melting Pot Music label titled Skimming The Skum.
According to the group’s press release, their sound has garnered the accolades of Meters guitarist Leo Nocentelli. No doubt he was honoured by several homages to the classic New Orleans legends on this disc (especially tunes such as ‘Get Back (Drum & Chant)’, right down to the use of parenthesis within the song’s title!). Elsewhere, the organ sound of Booker T. Jones and his MGs is aped, evident in an almost direct lift of the Sam & Dave ‘Soul Man’ riff on the tune ‘Paul Newman’. This track also reminded me of another hammond-led funk outfit of white boys emulating a black sound – the James Taylor Quartet (not forgetting JT’s legendary outfit The Prisoners), another reference point that cannot be ignored when discussing the LSC sound. To round things off, tracks ’12 Inch Rims’ and ‘Freakie Frankie’ add a healthy dose of Lalo Schiffrin’s trademark menace from soundtracks such as Bullit and Dirty Harry into the mix and, well, you get the picture.
If all this sounds like I’m ragging on this album, I’m not. It’s just that there’s nothing really that new here. Having said that, the grooves are dirty and gritty enough to rock any party (I probably need to hear it LOUD! or live) and Onno Smit’s blue-eyed soul vocals are no slouch at all. Chicken scratch guitars, scorching hammond riffs and tough mod soul action are prominent here on these self penned grooves. Kudos too, considering this was recorded live with no overdubs straight to an eight track desk for extra authenticity. Maybe these guys shoulda backed Marva Whitney on her new album!
Lyndon Pike
