The Raw Collective – The Good Things LP
(Independent)
Reviewed by Tim Gruar.
Here’s something big, bold and brassy for your stereo this summer. Think Fat Freddies’. Think King Kapisi and Che Fu. Think Black Seeds and Open Souls. Chuck it all into a sonic blender and you have ‘The Good Things’ LP. This is crowd pleasing festival jive, with a tight hip-hop groove and lashings of Kiwi/Poly-funk attitude. It’s rap with a cool-as horn section. They make this kinda music sexy – it’s why kids with a trumpet should do band camp, folks.
Because they hail from my home town, the coolest little capital, I’ve seen this blistering funk crew on many occasions – from Garden Magic, Newtown Festival to Homegrown and our own famous street festival, Cuba Dupa. And they’ve done gigs across the Pond, too. And opened for TECH N9NE, Madchild, GZA, and Ghostface Killah.
When you need to liven up the party they bring the goods with a wild stompin’ horn section and layer after layer of energetic rap and sweet-soul vocal harmonies.
They formed in 2014 and have gone through a few changes along the way, plus the release of several releases, singles and e.p.s (this will be their fourth album). The current group is a 10 piece – and I’m name checking their website. Here we go: Julian Kirgan (Trombone), Ben Hunt (Trumpet), Eilish Wilson (Sax), Reuben Youl (Samples), Raw Deazy (Emcee), Moira Jean (Vocals), Chris CK (Emcee), Sam Notman (Drums), Blain Fitzpatrick (Bass), and, phew, Pauly Lowe (Guitar/vocals).
On this album you really can’t single anyone out – they all deliver. Tight but with a confident swagger, like an old-fashioned show band and can all prove their Jazz School/theatre chops.
In 2018 Montreal producer ‘GHOSTNAUT’ joined the band on keys for that year’s summer tour and help make their stunning collaboration album ‘From Montreal to Welly’ (which also featured internationals like Rashaan Ahmaad, (from Nujabes) and Mr J. Medeiros (The Procussions). Sadly, 2020, as we all know put the kibosh on overseas travel and collabs – at least in person. But that didn’t stop the Raw Company from booking time at the famous Surgery Studios in Welly during lockdown and completing the album as soon as the ‘all clear’ was sounded. Mixed by Jason Erskine and mastered by Mike Gibson ‘Good Things’ it was recorded all live. This album is a pretty fair snapshot of what the band’s live act sounds and feels like on the big stage – right now!
The crew start off with a mid paced tune called ‘First Movement’, Raw Deazy and Pauly Lowe and Chris CK kick off rhyming about why they choose this ‘performance life’ – to pay the bills and feed off the crowd (the usual). Moira Jean’s soulful vocals cut through the lad’s gruff bravado and set the template for what’s to come.
It’s a shame WOMAD didn’t happen this year because the positive messaging and super stylin’ of the title track would definitely fit right in with the multi-cultural feel of that festival. It would really go off on the Bowl Stage. It has that big crowd pleaser vibe, infectious groovy chorus, smatterings of Shaggy-styled vox pops, and a spot of wordplay humour too. My favourite line: “That’s how the tables turn – just a Lazy Susan!”
The slower pieces work well too, like ‘Waiting for The Sunrise’, which could easily slide on to any Mid 90’s Acid Jazz compilation. But if you wanna throw your hands up in the air, then ‘Just Deserts’ will get you on your feet with its call and response flow. And more cleverness: “Call me head chef, the way I cook the verse up”.
‘Rainy Days’ has a bit of a latter Supergroove/Che Fu feel to it, with the rhymes coming thick, fast, punctured by harsher, more urgent brass and even harder percussion. For ‘Calling’ they borrow liberally from Sly Stone, whilst Moira Jean grabs the mic and gives us some sweet, smoky altos. Her verses match perfectly with Blain Fitzpatrick’s driving slap bass and Eilish Wilson’s noodling sax interjections.
The party continues with the big stomper ‘Dark Matter’, which Moira Jane also takes the lead on. Except this time, she’s more assertive, maybe even a bit raunchy. The brass section are going at full show band mode. Then halfway, there’s a tempo change and the return of the emcees to add some deep drama to this straight up thumpin’ groove.
To my ears the opening of ‘Pop a 7-er’ opens sound more than just a little bit like Supergroove’s ‘You gotta know’. ‘To the Moon’, the closer, completes another banger, led by a slightly more exotic refrain boasting a slice of the Middle East pop. And once again Deazy and CK own the floor, spitting out their raps with all due aplomb.
The album is a bit of a personal project according to Pauly Lowe (who along with his nine other bandmates helped pen these tunes). “It was an album we wrote for ourselves; it was slow building and gloomy, we loved it but it was missing something”. ‘The Good Things LP’ contains a much larger spectrum. “We wanted each track to be its own personality, instead of trying to fit everything into one epic song”.
It’s always a challenge to capture the full force of a live performance without an audience in a cold, soulless studio but Raw Collective manage to pull it off. This is a band that works best on a stage and for the real experience you need lights, punters, and action. So, this is more like the best rehearsal you’ll ever attend. Catch them live this summer, you won’t be disappointed!
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