Earthology

by The Whitefield Brothers

My first exposure to the Whitefield Brothers was through their album 'In the Raw', and while I liked it as background music, this album is miles above it in terms of quality and vision.

Earthology opens with a call for "joyous joyful exaltation" before sliding into a seventies-style funk piece.  From there, the album remains quite mercurial, shifting tones, moods, and styles a couple of times before finishing.

The Brothers have invited a few rappers to appear on the album. 'Reverse', with Percee P and MED, is a funk remix off of the Percee's last album, and I think the track works better than the original Madlib version did.  'The Gift', featuring Edan and Mr. Lif would fit nicely on Beauty and the Beat, but also works great here.

The rest of the album is strictly instrumental, and that's where the Brothers and their accompanists really shine.  Tracks like 'Safari Strut', 'Alin', and 'Breakin' Through' update older African melodies.  'Sem Yelesh' is a thoughtful piece grounded by a terrific saxophone.

Right in the middle of the album, they have place 'Ntu', a cool percussion-only piece, which serves to cleanse the listener's rhythmic pallet before diving into 'Pamukkale', my favourite track on this album.  This piece could have been the opening theme to an African spy show, like a Mission: Impossible type of thing, set in Lagos or Nairobi.

The album closes out with a pair of lovely pieces, 'Lullaby for Lagos' and 'Chich'.  This whole album is a very cool project, and one that I've had on pretty steady play for the last couple of months.