Album Review: The Bamboos - Medicine Man

The genre apocryphally named for the body odour offered by its enthusiastic players once meant George Clinton, plenty of slap bass and musicians dressed like they'd lost a bet with a sartorially enthusiastic wizard, but today's funk family tree has a few more branches. Or shoots. Conventional wisdom would definitely put The Bamboos' new album under 'F for Funk', and conventional wisdom would be pretty much right. But how exactly does Medicine Man fit in?

This is an album very much of the zeitgeist – one look at the featured artists tells us that. Washington (appearing as Megan Washington) gets a couple of turns in the booth, first on Eliza, which is chimey but not grimey, and towards the end of the album on their take of James Blake's The Wilhelm Scream. The latter is soulful, very, very lovely and as far from Jungle Boogie as music gets. Elsewhere, I Got Burned has this sleazy low-key guitar lick, redolent of Mark Knopfler's Dire Straits, and Tim Rogers sings like never before over the top. Hip hop's utility man Aloe Blacc pops up on what might be the best track on the album, Where Does The Time Go?, and regular collaborator (and Tru Thoughts labelmate) Kylie Auldist is consistent throughout.

I suppose a good enough adjective for Medicine Man would be 'warm'. It's less rooted in the traditional rhythm-driven tunes than The Bamboos' earlier releases, but just as listenable and appealing. If you've got a fever for some funk that's clean, modern and soulful, The Bamboos' Medicine Man is good for what ails you.