Pickpocket
Sojourn
“Groove-soaked good vibes.”
Released: September 2016
Featured Track: “Aurora”
With ever increasing advances in MIDI and sampling, not to mention the scarily ubiquitous auto-tune, music producers today can turn even the most turgid performance into a polished thing of commercial beauty. Yet there’s no substitute for real live musicianship, and here’s a prime slice of self-produced excellence from Australian bassist Craig Strain. The reason this rises onto our radar is its unfettered groove-soaked good vibes – full of rubbery basslines, screaming guitar goodness and old-school beats. Drummer Matthias Edwards has a perfect chemistry with Craig, and alongside the slamming brass section, plus guitarists Neil Boland and Jason Liacos, this sounds and feels like a kicking jazz-funk band, fuelled by Craig’ powerful bass work, creating an album full of funk-fuelled contrasts.
