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House Of Happiness [Release Date 22.03.23]
Described in some quarters as; “blues for the 21st century”, Mick Pini and Audio 54 (aka producer Craig Marshall) ‘Way Ahead’ album, is the strongest restatement of the view that blues is at its best as a catalyst rather than simply a genre in itself.
For most of his 57 year career, the German based, Leicester blues man Pini has been regarded as an underrated tone-meister with a unique emotive vocal phrasing ability that makes lyrics leap of the page.
Here, he looses none of those qualities, while adding an exploratory willingness to see where his producer’s ideas take him.
‘Way Ahead’ finds the duo forging their own new blues direction in a broad based sweep. It’s music rooted in the blues but ventures into funk, jazz, soul, rhythm & blues, swamp, psychedelia, dance, dub-step, and contemporary beats.
As Mick has said; “Craig provided the framework for the album and I saw it as my job to find a groove and add some feel.”
This provides him with a blank canvas in which to explore an array of grooves, tones and intensity, while indulging in evocative spontaneity.
A combination of contrasting, but related songs, rhythms, moods and startlingly different vocal attacks makes the most of Audio 54’s contemporary approach to the blues.
The album opens with the bass-led ‘Head North’, on which Pini eases himself into things with some layered guitar. And as if to illustrate the two stylistic extremities at the core of the album – programmed beats and organic blues – he strips everything back on the down-home blues of ‘Last Night’.
It drips with emotion as Mick’s aching vocal and Craig’s eerie accompaniment leaves us in no doubt as to the emotional charge of the song.
They stick with the down-in-the-alley blues feel of ‘Late Night Blues’ on which Pini’s sinewy playing hovers seamlessly over an B3 anchor line.
The judicious use of layered sound, pile driving drums and a sudden grainy sax (think early Mothers of Invention) gives the song its propulsive feel.
The other ostensible blues is called ‘New Blues’, which is actually a reflective funky piece with wailing harp, baritone vocal and spindly guitar over a big fat groove.
In complete contrast, tracks such as ‘Light Don’t Shine’ effectively requires you a find a pair of head phones, draw the curtain, pour yourself a slow one and just drift.
It’s an uncompromising step into an atmospheric clubby fusion vibe on which Mick’s finger clicking part is different again. He adds a funky wah-wah, baritone vocal, booming bass and lashing of echo reverb over huge programmed beats and a repeated vocal block.
As the hook line suggests, “Sometimes the light don’t shine”; but you have to focus that bit harder and let the groove take you towards where you want to go.
The Audio 54 vocal-led ‘Nowadays’ recovers from a muffled intro to slip into a celebratory New Orleans style percussive groove, while the eerie bv’s add a touch of spook, before a sudden fazed drop in.
In short, if you can’t dance to this you have a serious problem. The drop-down handclaps, mariachi trumpet line and horn motif alone provide an album highlight.
Aside from perhaps the Fantastic Negrito and Yerba Buena, who else in the blues and roots related world is producing tracks like this?
The duo also revisits their first collaboration ‘Papa Voodoo’, a menacing track which the late Dr John would have killed for.
It can also be can be grouped together with ‘Trouble’ and ‘Shadows’ as noir blues.
The former opens with a luscious bass line, and a Miles Davis vibe via a marvellous drifting piano line and a late night groove, as Mick’s soulful whispered vocals give the track with a portentous feel.
The husky magnificence of ‘Trouble’ is an even beefier groove, as Mick’s expressive croak is the perfect foil for his tremulous harp line. There’s even a Prince style bv and another significant trumpet line, before Pini finally adds a cathartic release with an exclamatory “fire”, as his solo explodes like lava from a volcano.
This is inspirational stuff and the perfect meeting of two musical spirits in complete harmony.
I’ve left the R.L. Burnside meets Captain Beefheart influenced train-time ‘Moving On’ to last, simply because it’s the best way to sum up the project as a whole. The album is called ‘Way Ahead’, and the duo is indeed ‘moving on’.
They do so via a chunky, funky groove that plays to Pini’s strengths with his buzz saw vocal, and shimmering guitar tones as Craig fills the track with an extra-planetary vibe.
‘Way Ahead’ lives up to its name by being exploratory and innovative in the way it seamlessly connects with a number of blues related strands before wrenching them from their respective niches to fill a contemporary album with fresh and vitality.
Open your ears and join the party. ****
Review by Pete Feenstra
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