The opening of first song, “Foolosophy,” has a crackle sound, like an old record, before finger snaps and a guitar riff crescendo into a full funk featuring a classic organ sound. Be-bopping singing matches the guitar note for note for a while before light soul claps turn into full on applause at the end of the song.
The Fort Collins, Colorado trio’s debut album is clearly worthy of this fanfare, named and performed by “The Grippe.” According to their official bio, “‘The Grippe’ is an old British slang meaning sickness, and this illness’ symptoms are making people boogie.”
The Grippe’s live show always keeps people dancing long into the night, and this album catches that vibe, while throwing in a few slow jams and a simple, smooth classical piano solo as well.
The Grippe offers several styles of music that all seem to come together seamlessly; from electronica-esque sounds, like in the segue, “Meaty,” to the talented guitar, organ, and drum solos on “Meioux.” “The Grippe LP” came out in November 2010 and was engineered by Grammy award winning producer, David Glasser (String Cheese Incident, Dave Matthews Band).
The reason The Grippe sounds so different, yet so well organized is due to the fact that the trio is made up of three very diverse musicians. Charlie Humphreys (guitar) formerly played with blues rock band “Holy Moses and the High Rollers,” Stu Crair (drums) toured nationally with the progressive-rock band “Orooni,” and newcomer Walter Hannah (Hammond organ, keyboards, bass keys) came to the band via Portland where he recorded with “The Parallel Trio.”
These three unique musicians create a brand new sound that is catchy and well-represented on their debut album. The Grippe’s sound is much bigger than one would expect from a band with only three instrumentalists.
“Mad Rye” would be perfect for an action scene or montage in an Austin Powers flick, and it contains a break in the middle reminiscent of Peter Frampton. “Just Add Water” is a slow, sultry, smooth jam with distorted guitar taking the lead. “Hucklebuck” is upbeat and staccato, featuring the keyboard almost exclusively at first before incorporating bass, guitar and drums.
“Lucid” has an awesome saxophone feature by Dominic Lalli (The Motet, Big Gigantic) that flows between the bass grooves and keyboard melodies like water. “Darker Water” is reminiscent of a Pink Floyd ballad; down tempo, some high-pitched twangy guitar, and an ethereal quality.
Catch the sickness and buy this album for a nice escape from the humdrum of radio rock. http://www.thegrippefunk.com/index.htm
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