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Same As It Never Was

by

The Herbaliser

 
Same As It Never Was
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Avg: 4.0 (84 ratings)

Herbaliser go live and blend funktastic '70s disco with hip-hop cool

  • We Say...

    Review by Adam Kearney

    This soulful, funktastic collection of grooves takes salty '70s disco and blends it with modern hip-hop cool. Following the format of Take London, their last release, Same As It Never Was includes guest vocalists and studio musicians, making for a sonic 3-ring circus.

    Straying from their formerly hip-hop-heavy style, founders Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry have transformed the Herbaliser into an amazing live band, favorites of festivals like Glastonbury in the UK. Jessica Darling adds her vocals to four tracks on the album, and her deep, textured and emotive voice dominates the multitudinous instruments. Jean Grae, another female guest vocalist, gets gritty with her edgy, spoken-word ghetto tale "Street Karma."

    The orchestrations on this album are particularly choice. On the instrumental "The Next Spot," bongos, keys and horns tell a story without words; it's like looking out the window of a moving car — each verse and chorus is a different vista. "Blackwater Drive" creates a sense of exhilarating apprehension — it's like a James Bond movie, a black Rolls Royce cruising through the Casbah while a DJ juggles beats on a rooftop overhead.

    Fans of the band's hip-hop heritage will enjoy "Just Won't Stop," where guest rapper Yungun's laments the end of a musical era. The man spits thusly: "I heard the record shop shut down / I guess we got one less spot for heads to link up now / so now they hot-link / it's all switched round / they mean your mouse when they talk about your clique now." The continued sterilization of the scene, caused by technology's removal of personal interaction, is like a train with no determined course and no final stop.

    Same As It Never Was continues the Herbaliser's successful synthesis of jazz, hip-hop and soul into a funky big-band hydra. With a torrent of record scratches, horns and organs, the Herbaliser recreates aging styles anew; they've never sounded this good before.

  • They Say...

    Review by John Bush, All Music Guide

    Usually the grooviest and most hip-hop connected of Ninja Tune's acts, the Herbaliser gradually matured into a supremo live band, led by the duo of Ollie Teeba and Jake Wherry but also encompassing dozens of support slots for brass, woodwinds, and percussionists, plus the usual plugged-in instruments. Still, the Herbaliser isn't a chamber ensemble per se, but instead the type of funky big band prominent in the '70s, the kind that could drop a blaxploitation or disco nugget one minute and get all funky over "Sunny" the next. Same as It Never Was, their first record for !K7, is in similar company to Herbaliser's previous Take London from 2005. It's delivered with the help of an excellent roster of musicians; tenor saxman Chris Bowden, bassist Pino Palladino, and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Ross all make multiple appearances. The sound and productions are definitely up to the Herbaliser standard, but the duo may lose a few listeners when they exercise their funny bones, as they do several times here. Instead of hitting at street level, they spend a lot of time indulging in camp instrumentals like "The Next Spot" and "Amores Bongo" (it's not "Sunny," but it's close). As Herbaliser have done since their debut, they excel at bringing vocal features to life; here it's the Jean Grae guest spot "Street Karma (A Cautionary Tale)," with its eerie blaxploitation shadings. Other highlights come with "Can't Help This Feeling" and "On Your Knees," both featuring vocals by the leather-lunged soul-blues belter Jessica Darling. (Obviously Herbaliser have been at it for years, but it's difficult not to hear her and think of Amy Winehouse or Sharon Jones.) There's no doubting the Herbaliser's ability to deliver exactly what they're attempting, but despite the excellent playing and good vocal features (when they occur), the songwriting and choice of material make this record inferior to the usual Herbaliser standard.

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