Music Review // The Fish Police – The Marzipan Transformations
Depending
on your tastes, this album will either delight you or confuse you in a very
good way. If you’ve ever seen this band live (which #srcz has) you’ll know they
are an excellent live prospect. Indeed, with a name like The Fish Police only good
things can occur!
For
this album they transform their live repertoire into a tightly arranged funk
influenced treat that is sometimes silly, often seriously funky and never
boring. Indeed, if you’ve ever seen The Time, (fronted by the legendarily cool
Morris Day) you can see some clear delineation between their works.
The
topic of the songs is not one of them though, although the hallowed sub-genre
of Food Funk is certainly present in the brilliantly silly but multiple-times
listenable Chicken Nuggets For Me. Never have the words ‘I’m going to tell you
how I like my chicken’ been delivered so brilliantly! With an electro funk
backing it’s one of the highlights of the album.
Other
highlights include the funk-rock of DJG, taking a disco influenced vibe and
creating a slab of funk that is so effortless in its construction it’s
impossible to deny it’s warmth. On the same wavelength is Japanese Girl, a tale
of trying to get said character to something else other than reading or
sleeping set to a De La Soul esque propulsive groove.
The
whole of The Marzipan Transformations shines with the positive energy of a band
enjoying themselves immensely and it’s hard to fault the collection's timeless
soul quality without seeming like a very miserable person indeed. Indeed,
perhaps the only point that can be made is that it takes a good listen or two
to get into if you’re not used to such musical exuberance but that doesn’t diminish
the fact that as a debut album, it’s one to be very proud of.
We’re
not talking purple rain yet but the Food Funk vibes and excellent production on
this album are funky enough to get even the most cynical person into the groove
with little effort. Make sure to listen
to this album very soon!
Reviewed
by Sebastian Gahan.