Nine piece Soul / Funk powerhouse The Bamboos return with their first new music of 2021, an infectious cover of the Black Box 1989 Italo-House hit “Ride On Time”. More a reinvention than cover version (as the band have accomplished on numerous occasions in the past with songs by everyone from James Blake, Kings Of Leon to London Grammar) where the tight, uptempo drums lift the three piece horn section, which carries the song’s hook. Bamboos stellar vocalist Kylie Auldist does justice to Loleatta Holloway’s vocal as it was sampled in the original, in one of pop music’s most famous misquotations. The track has already built a buzz with a seven inch vinyl release selling out in a week in December, making this a certified DJ weapon, wherever the party finds itself to be right now.
“We locked ourselves up in this country house to record the new album” recalls Bamboos guitarist, leader and main songwriter Lance Ferguson. “We were hanging out in a barn that we had designated as our late night “Rec Room”, listening to some ‘90s music as we often do, when “Ride On Time” came on. I’m pretty sure it was our bass player, Yuri Pavlinov, who mooted the idea - and then we literally ran back into the house/studio and started to work it out. It was really just some early-hours-of-the-morning fun, and now there are press releases and a video clip. Who knew!?”
The band is also announcing their tenth studio album, titled Hard Up. Much of the album was recorded communally over a week just prior to the pandemic at a sprawling country house just outside the (coincidentally named) town of Lancefield, north of Melbourne. The approach of making an album outside the recording studio, steeped in such legendary tales as the ‘Stones at Villa Nellcôte or Radiohead’s ‘O.K Computer’ St Catherine’s Court sessions has made it the groups most collaborative yet, solidifying even more their seemingly telepathic musical interplay.
“We had always talked about getting out of town and locking ourselves up in an old house somewhere to make a record” Ferguson adds. “And it just seemed to be the right time to do it. Something different happens musically when everyone is together in the same place and in no hurry to go anywhere else…there’s a real focus. We were recording takes at 3am in the morning, experimenting with whole different approaches to songs, the horn section took over an empty barn to come up with their parts…all of the things you can imagine”.
The album features guest vocalists Durand Jones (of current US deep soul faves Durand Jones & The Indications), LA based Joey Dosik, and will include the three 2020 singles, "Hard Up", "While You Sleep" feat. Ev Jones and "Power Without Greed". As with all previous Bamboos albums, Hard Up was produced by Ferguson and mixed alongside John Castle (Jack River, Vance Joy, Gretta Ray, Angie McMahon).
Also announced and going on sale today is a special performance on April 10 at The Corner Hotel in Melbourne, which will be the band’s first livestream. The show will be the live premiere of the new album and will also mark the band’s 21 years together by playing some of the band’s most beloved tracks since they formed in 2000.
