BBC Review
This is an album that looks forwards and backwards, and is all the better for it.
Greg Boraman 2006-01-13
Following on from 2003's Clear The Decks, contemporary funksters The Players have undergone some personnel changes. Out goes superstar plank spanker Aziz Ibrahim, and in come vocalists Kelly Dickson & the Papenfus brothers.
The Players take a cleaner and more modern approach to production than most of their neo-funk contemporaries (The New Mastersounds et al), blending samples and programmed beats with really fine musicianship. Giving the proceedings more than a whiff of that spooky Portishead sound; managing to sound contemporary, but old and dusty at the same time.
Not that the music here ever loses attention to the groove, with a rhythm section currently utilised by Paul Weller and The Who (or what's left of them) you'd expect nothing less. This is an album that looks forwards and backwards, and is all the better for it.
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