If the Alan Evans Trio‘s Drop Hop album was pitched somewhere between The Meters and Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express, Merkaba is pitched instead somewhere between Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express and the Undisputed Truth. Yep – the Soulive drummer’s ‘other’ gang are taking you on a space-funk trip – as if the cover hadn’t already given that away. Gone are the stripped-back breaks of the first LP in favour of a more layered keys-and-guitars ‘cosmic sound’ which lends itself more to a headphones on (closed-cup, obviously), jazz-cigarette lit, hi-fi obsessive armchair experience (as opposed to a dancefloor one) for the most part, though the tempos and beats are lively enough. The guitar presence on this is such, in fact, that the mothership itself lands on Cosmic Hazel Dust‘s tribute to Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel on which we’re treated to some suitably intergalactic fretwork. Time to break out the thigh high platform boots, spangly waistcoats and star-shaped sunglasses again, then. Like you needed an excuse…
(Out now on Traffic)