Alan Wilkis is an electro/funk/rock artist out of Brooklyn, New York whose tracks on his new EP ‘Pink and Purple‘ are reminiscent of Prince playing with Cybotron. Hand claps and synth bass cascade over pure pop seduction. The first track ‘Snuggle Up to Nail Down’ has the artist harmonizing with himself through a talk box with the finest 80′s synths grooving and glitching in the background. The next track ‘N.I.C.E’ sounds a bit like Rick James with Prince on synth bass. Yes I just used Prince again as a reference point. ‘Gotta Get You Back’ uses a good old fashion clean hook ala Stevie Wonder and some baroque harpsichord breakdowns. The Stevie Wonder vibe continues onto the title track ‘Pink and Purple’ until the track explodes into some 80′s solo style guitar riffing. ‘Dance with You’ continues the party in 80′s pop bliss style with ascending dance funk melodies.The final track ‘Time Machine’ sounds like a solo ballad from Martin Gore from Depeche Mode. Overall if you’re looking to get a house party started with an electro-funk slant, Alan Wilkis’ ‘Pink and Purple’ will not dissapoint, it’s electro-funk with a retro-futuristic edge.
June 17, 2009
Funk Up Your Life with Alan Wilkis!
November 26, 2008
My Dear Disco Invites you to Dancethink!
My Dear Disco is a band out of Anne Arbor Michigan being hailed by many as that area’s new “it” band. They may not be far off. The band pumps out funk-tastic electro that dabbles in r&b and swirly island rhythms with full on soulful vocals. What are they putting in the water in Michigan?
January 23, 2008
Chris Price’s Future Pop
Chris Price is an electronic music artist whose compositions garnered attention from the early to mid 1980′s in many adult films under the name D’Crescendo. At the time too young to view the movies that his music was in, he went largely unaware of the recognition that he was receiving from the films. It is said that people began going to the movies for the music alone. As Chris Price came of age, the adult entertainment industry began moving away from original music works and started copying the top 40 musical styles to engage a larger audience. It was at this time that he shed his D’Crescendo moniker and began doing work for the Weather Channel and through this forum eventually caught the attention of a prominent Christian movie director, for which he produced the music for a series of direct to video releases. From this exposure he influenced Gangsta Christian rapper Geto Deacon to make an album comprised almost completely of Chris Price samples. After revisiting the works of his D’Crescendo days, Chris Price has decided to make an original album in the flavor of his influences; which include Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Depeche Mode among others.
Chris Prices’ music is excellently programmed, he has a true understanding of vintage synth-pop that many are sure to enjoy. His mastery and appreciation of synth pop classics also comes with a classic case of the New Order problem. The music itself is wonderful, full of throbbing rhythms and catchy melodies but the lyrics sometimes leave something to be desired. Even fans of New Order have to concede that Bernard Sumner is not the world’s most brilliant lyricist. While sometimes this is endearing, other times it can be quite painful to endure (ala “Booty Magic”). Then again maybe it’s influence from being around the sub par acting and scripts of the adult film industry and the Christian film industry. That said, I applaud his willingness to experiment with so many different styles. Collectively there are still solid hits on his debut Post Pop Parade with the decidedly Herbie Hancock-ish “Work It”, the slow burn of “And She Was” (No not a Talking Heads Cover) that is a wonderful homage to New Order, complete with heavily chorused bass melody, and obvious lead single “Dim the Lights, Evangeline” that combines the catchiest lyrics on the entire album with sublime squiggly synths. If you’ve got a fever, and the only medication is more vocoder, Chris Price is prepared to fill the prescription.
May 15, 2007
Herbie Hancock Synth Master of Funk
So, this past week I was looking up videos of Bob Moog (the creator of the Moog Synthesizer) and I happened to find a video of Herbie Hancock showing kids a Fairlight synthesizer on Sesame Street. From his congenial attitude toward the kids and funky jam on the outro, I was hooked. So, needless to say I found myself looking up lots of songs and videos of him from the mid 80′s in the past week or so. For those of you who aren’t familiar with who this guy is, he is a wildly inventive and Grammy winning jazz pianist and composer from Chicago Illinois who has worked with Jazz legend Miles Davis and contributed genre bending experimental music that is still surprisingly fresh and accessible today. “You Bet Your Love”, with its vocoder and slap bass, is certainly in the record collection of Daft Punk, and the jazzy drawn out funk storm of “Chameleon”, I’m sure, has a home in James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem’s house. Herbie Hancock was also one of the first musicians to use an apple computer to assist him in making music in the early 80′s, he also was the first performer to win a Grammy for a song that featured scratching on the 1983 single “Rockit”. I would be willing to bet, even if you’ve never heard of Mr. Hancock before, you’ve most likely heard “Rockit.” What I’m most impressed with though, is that despite that it’s been 20 or more years since these songs were created, they still sound great coming out of my car stereo.
Herbie Hancock Myspace
Buy the Essential Herbie Hancock
MP3 – You Bet Your Love – Herbie Hancock
MP3 – Rock It – Herbie Hancock
Rock It : Live
