almost single-handedly spoils this album for the simple reason that it's too straight.
Elsewhere, the debut album from the former TrinityRoots drummer Riki Gooch is bewildering, sometimes wild, and beautifully challenging
soul music of the kind we haven't heard much of, if at all, out of New Zealand.
It's been nearly four years since TrinityRoots called it quits and since then Gooch has worked with the likes of Ladi6, Neil Finn and Bic Runga, to name a few from the top shelf, but
Great News For the Modern Man
finds him in his true element.
Songs like
Sambaskool Dropout
and
Star Child
shows Gooch takes as much from Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway as he does from nuttier experimentalists like
Can
and
Sun Ra
. Then there's the bobbing and slinky pulse of
Sun Again
; the skittery beats and hand claps of
Kevin
; and the 13-track album is stitched together by four short interludes that lope, drone, and simmer.
Gooch is a master beatmaker on machines, live drums, and even when he and his mates are clapping their hands. At times the grooves might be odd but this is sweet future soul music.
Scott Kara
