Considering the mix of the nine (or ten) members of Seattle's future funk fusion group High Pulp, it has to be fusion. Their new album Bad Juice is out this week and they're celebrating live at Nectar with Industrial Revelation Saturday night. We got a powerful preview live in the KNKX studios that you've gotta hear.
Drummer Rob Granfelt leads this ensemble, which began as a quartet a couple years ago and has been built through friendships formed in the after-show "hangs" around Seattle. Core members Scott Rixon (bass), Antoine Martell (keys) and Gehrig Uhles (guitar) keep the emphasis on the rhythm section. This is a band designed to make you move.
The recent additions of Bad News Botanists' keys-man Rob Homan, and the horns of Victory Nguyen (ts), Andrew Morrill (as), Isaac Poole (tb) and Alex Dugdale (t) provide power, psychedelic soundscapes and soloing chops. (Plus percussionist Walter Torres featured on the Bad Juice album.)
The songs are pretty sharp, too. My personal pick for the Summer Jam of 2018 is their catchy groover "Hookai", with hard blowing trombone and sax solos matched by tropical "chill out" breaks. Take this one to the beach.
Granfelt told us this is the upbeat "Summer" album, while the band begins work on a new collection of "darker" moods planned for release in the shorter days of a Northwest Winter. High Pulp may soon establish themselves as a band for all seasons.