It’s been a long time since the second BONG album dropped, although I know that John Heintz has been busy with the live shows and collating material for the third album.
This seven track EP will more than do in the meantime.
If you are into soul with deep funk grooves, this is a winner. Heintz was raised in the George Clinton stable and that wonderfully heavy style of funk pervades the whole EP.
The whole EP has an unusual principle behind it. John Heintz “This was an experimental album with different players on every track. The secret with this album is every song is on the same drum track. I reused the drums on “All Together Now” as the foundation for every song on the album. I wanted to kinda show how limitless creativity can be with a singular foundation.”
And it is true, the same Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers/Pearl Jam) drum track is there, but every track has a different feel and sound.
The lineups include musicians picked from the most notable bands and players around. Just on the opening track ‘All Together Now’ the lineup is:
Drums: Jack Irons (Red Hot Chili Peppers/Pearl Jam)
Bass: John Heintz
Guitar: Leo Nocentellli (The Meters)
Rhodes: Frank Mapstone
B3/Clavinet: Rami Jaffee(Foo Fighters/Wallflowers)
Saxophone: Greg Hollowell
Trombone: Derrick Johnson (Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band)
Trumpet: Alex Bradley (Empire Strikes Brass)
Percussion: Leon Mobley (The Innocent Criminals)
And elsewhere the likes of Ronkat Spearman (P-Funk), Freekbass (Bump Assembly), Ra Diaz (Korn/Suicidal Tendencies), Angelo Moore (Fishbone) – the list goes on.
There was a period during the late seventies and through the eighties, when elements of soul, jazz and funk were combining to make fantastically exciting dance music that bore listening to in their own right. Nothing was excluded in the search for more booty-shaking and head exploding material.
In my opinion, John Heintz collaborations are some of the most exciting music around at the moment. It invigorates the body and tweaks at the mind – really works for me!