Greg Tate has been at his Burnt Sugar project, one of the many he has on, for more than 18 years now. While he’s not guiding this musical conglomerate, he’s writing, producing, playing… Certainly a busy man.
Although Burn Sugar or Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber seems to be intermittent, 14 of them have accumulated through the years. By listening to any batch of them you might think you have picked up all the influences they have come up and all the players that were involved.
And you would certainly be wrong. The number of players involved and the musical styles exemplified is staggering. With this year’s All You Zombies Dig The Luminosity, this time again under the Arkestra Chamber moniker, that concepts remain the same. Well, at least something is constant!
You may be able to take the count of the number of players on the album (21 in all, with Greg Tate appearing all over the place), but if you try to list the inspirations employed on the 17 tracks here, you’d probably lose the count. But we can try at least with a few.
From Sun Ra (Arkestra in the title gives a clue for those who may not be sure), Miles Davies late Sixties/Early Seventies electric phase, Jimi Hendrix, George Clinton’s in all his Parliament/Funkadelic shapes and sizes, James Brown, Archie Shepp, Bill Laswell’s Material… shall we go on?
It all could sound just like a big hodgepodge stew, not that it did not happen in the past, but on All You Zombies… producer Luqman Brown who often has the production reigns in his hands on Burnt Sugar projects has made sure it all jells.
The influences blend into each other like a perfect cocktail and come with up a very listenable album, particularly strengthened by the fact that there are eight different vocalists and six different guitar players (including Tate) that ensure the music stays both different and interesting.
There is a slight slant towards the Early Seventies soul akin to Marvin Gaye (try “Yung Big & Vague”), but that is just yet another positive twist in the mix, that has already proven it can produce some great music. A very listenable and intriguing album at the same time.
