Brooklyn Funk Essentials Due To Release New Album

Brooklyn Funk Essentials serve up their 7th long player 'Intuition' today, as they tour the UK and Europe. It is a master-crafted collection of R&B, discofunk, poly-riddims, infectious funk stompers with pop-laced hooks and good vibes, out today on Dorado Records.

The release day focus and title track 'Intuition' is a hook-laden jam with hints of Brubeck, Chaka Khan and Nino Rota, featuring Alison Limerick and guitarist Desmond Foster on soulful vocals and Hux's funky drummer beats It follows up the recent 4th single from the album 'Rollin', which was playlisted by Jazz FM for four weeks.

Brooklyn Funk Essentials' first long player since 6th album 'Stay Good' in 2019, 'Intuition' sees BFE lay out their new 'all killer no filler' collection across eight tracks of laid back grooves and arrangements that still remain cool, steady and easy. Alison Limerick (vocals), Desmond Foster (guitar, vocals), Ebba Âsman (trombone, backing vocals), Hux Nettermalm (drums, percussion), Kristoffer Wallman (keys, vibraphone and synths) and bandleader Lati Kronlund (bass, guitars, keys and producer) deliver a confident and vibrant set of originals.

The '70s soul inspired rollerdisco romp and sinewy thump of 'Rollin', to the Brass Construction meets S.O.S. Band-like stomp of party selects like 'AA Side Single' and 'How Happy' to jams like the signature horn-fuelled arrangements, chunky grooves and vox fierceness of 'Scream!', 'Sho'Nuff'. The album also welcomes dub poet Everton Sylvester from the original 1993 BFE band line-up.

Sylvester's honeyed contribution 'Mama' celebrates single mothers and was originally written for the band's 2008 'Watcha Playin' long player, but now fused with a sinewy jam lead by Ebba's dreamy trombone. BFE closes out the 8-track with the quiet storm-ish 'Unkissed', a reflective R&B paean about the difficulties of expressing love to those we care about the most when everyday life gets in the way.

BFE bandleader and founder Lati Kronlund said "The song Intuition wrote itself during an impromptu jam session at the BFE dojo. The band received the gift with joyous gratitude. Before they became verse, bridge and middle-8, sections were referred to as "the Brubeck bit", "the Chaka chant" or "the Nino Rota melody".

The song's lyrics express this process of mutual conception which was also the inspiration for the album as a whole. The organic approach is part of a confidence in our own groove and sound. BFE's identity is in the way we play and the songs we write. This trust is the basis for the intuition that we experience when we are playing together. That's where we're coming from and we stay true to that."

BFE received a huge welcome when they returned in summer 2022 to release new material and tour Europe. Of the first single 'Scream!', Jazz FM said "I'm a little bit addicted to it" and "Here is a tune that we're all loving, it's just so good", and Blues & Soul called it "A stonking cut of Afro Funk blessedness". The follow up 'AA Side Single' was equally well received, Jazz FM said "It sounds particularly good on a Friday!" and Blues & Soul called it "A funk behemoth". BFE's 3rd single 'How Happy' dropped to blow the January blues away, for which Jazz FM gushed "Alison Limerick sounding sublime on that choppy, funky tune!".

Across a career that stretches 30 years and seven albums, BFE have established themselves as an audacious project, fusing soul, hip hop, spoken word, jazz, Latin and of course, funk. The band have built up a loyal international cult following on every continent since inception in 1993 by iconic producer Arthur Baker and bassist Lati Kronlund.

BFE was born out of New York's buzzing hip hop, jazz and slam poetry scenes in the early 90s, rotating some of the finest musicians, DJs, poets, rappers and singers. BFE's celebrated debut album 'Cool & Steady & Easy' (Dorado/RCA 1995) scored an underground hit with the version of Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas' 'The Creator Has a Master Plan', while tracks like 'Take The L Train' and 'Big Apple Boogaloo' became DJ favourites.

BFE released 5th album 'Funk Ain't Ova' on Dorado Records in 2015, and during touring the band were joined by UK soul singer Alison Limerick, for whom Lati Kronlund had originally written and produced the stone-cold classic house anthem 'Where Love Lives' in the early 90s. Limerick took over as the band's lead singer in 2016 and eventually became co-writer, debuting on vocals on the 'Stay Good' album.

Today BFE is back with their 7th album, Intuition, due out on Friday, May 5th with Dorado Records!

Photo by: Andrea Kronlund

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