Customer Reviews

Front End Lifter

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

in a word: awesome. in a couple of other words, if you are expecting a rock guitarist's album with a turntableist thrown in as window dressing, you will surely be mistaken.

if you are looking for an album that is nearly always interesting, never boring, and is sometimes quite funny, you should pick up "front end lifter".

this is the surprise of the year for me. the things that these two cats can do with their instruments is amazing.

This is a brilliant show of music. Everything from the cd cover art down to the slip case over the cd is wonderful. The music on the inside is the jem though. I've always been a fan of Vernon Reid, even during his days with Living Color. His playing on this album is just an extension of what was on his solo album, Mistaken Identity. Not many DJ's are really interesting to listen to or fully get the creativity for the instrument that they use, but DJ Logic is not one of these artists. He approaches his instrument like a jazz musician, less is more type feel. He know just where to place "notes". This is a wonderful, eclectic little album to jam to, hopefully more will come from these two - together.

Ten years. Despite traveling in the same artistic circles, and even appearing on each other's solo work, it took a decade for DJ Logic and Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid to record an album together. It's especially odd now, given the path DJ Logic's career has taken. In the mid-'90s, it would have made perfect sense, working together on Graham Haynes' Transition disc and even Reid's own Mistaken Identity album, the two were almost in the exact same place musically.

But now DJ Logic finds himself among an entirely different crowd. After being "discovered" by Medeski, Martin and Wood on their Combustication album, DJ Logic and his group, Project Logic, were quickly taken up by the jam band community. The only problem is, these bands want to turn Logic into a DMC-style turntablist: wow the crowd with some impressive scratching and be done with it. But, as Reid knows, that isn't his proper role. He is a musical handyman, filling in spaces and touching up grooves with conservative scratches, obscure vocal samples and any other sound he sees fit. There is no machismo here, no concern over dropping listeners' jaws. It's a chance to see two artists realize their full potential after waiting for so long.

When you hear the album, it becomes apparent why they chose to name themselves after Africa's answer to Viagra. The Yohimbe Brothers start things off with Reid, maybe under the influence of the aphrodisiac, putting down a sexually charged guitar riff. Not to be outdone, DJ Logic provides an array of percussionist scratches and effects that matches Reid's intensity. The sexual energy builds even further, as producer Prince Paul (reprising his Handsome Boy Modeling School persona of Chester Rockwell) sends us on a tour with "6996 (Club Yohimbe)". This is probably the closest the album comes to living up to the '70s AFROdisiac feel of the cover art.

As the midpoint approaches, things begin to cool off. The initial excitement has been expelled, and the artists take time to focus on a much gentler, sweeter sound. The slower pace also allows DJ Logic more time to manipulate the music. The echoed vocals and muted horn work of "$moke and Du$t Dub (version)" make it seem as if the song is being carried on the crisp night, instead of your home speakers.

With "Bamalamb" we get a glimpse of what a Black Rock Coalition (the loose confederation led by Vernon and his old band, Living Colour) ho-down would sound like: violin, harmonica and a kick-ass guitar. But it seems that the sexual energy of the yohimbe root is not enough to carry the album all the way through. The tracks grow colder as the Brothers create a vast soundscape of crunching drums, modified guitars and an unending supply of electronic bleeps and blips. But with the mechanized sound comes more improvisation, a nice contrast to the more groove-oriented opening tracks.

This album is the final piece in a vision that was started by Vernon Reid with his Mistaken Identity record. But now Vernon seems to realize that you can't keep an album interesting with simple guitar licks.

Joe Schaefer
September 17, 2002

Why this band was never a big hit I STILL cannot fathom.
Is it because Vernon Reid & the YBs are not descended from pasty, seasick oarsmen who arrived on the Mayflower? Or is it because the sweaty, pumping, and face-melting INFOTAINMENT contained on FRONT-END LIFTER joyously overflows with a kinetic, thought-provoking and humorous blend of funk-hop, psychedelia and blazing guitar pyrotechnics? I'm still scratching my head! But my toe's still tapping as my
butt boogies and funny bone shivers with delight while Vernon & Co. funkify my life like few other band can (the Meters, Garage-A-Trois, Pfunk and early Chili Peppers - WTF happened, Flea? - come to mind!). The Yohimbe Brothers (Reid with DJ Logic playing mind-bendingly tasty turntables + a crack team of PLAYAS extraordinaire!) simply crank out supercharged guitar funk that not only'll get your grandma out on the dancefloor, but will also fry your synapses with acid-drenched guitar shredding and a battery of crazy sounds that all bounce along with the intensity of horny teenager on Red Bull and a first date with his new girlfriend. The hyper-funk workouts
ripping outta this CD are enough to lift the roof off any house-party while the proficiency of the players should satisfy all but the snobbiest of true MUSIC-o-PHILES. The cast of performers assembled here by Reid allows F-EL to play out a dizzying array of stylistic twists all rooted in guitar-shred funk. Latasha N. Diggs simultaneously melts and steels every guy in the room with her super sexy rap in "Psychopathia Mojosexualis". Whereas Slick Rick and Prince Paul
scope out the pick-up bar with horny hilarity as VR & the band rip a sick groove behind them. Their guitaristic jams exquisitely layed down with Hendrixian muscularity prove to be the musical glue binding this stylistically diverse party record together. Vernon and Logic also spread their experimental wings and blast our earholes with sick guitar-soaked slabs of HIP-HOP PSYCHEDELIA via "Ponk" and "Tenemenatal". Our fearless music professors then tweak our knobs past ELEVEN by sampling a SQUARE DANCE CALLER and cranking up the groove factor again with the harmonica-funk hoedown of "Bamalamb"...WHOO-EEE! That un' blowed up, real good! So get off yer rumps and prick up your ears because this band came here to FUNK YOU UP! I can only deal this outstanding album FOUR AND ONE HALF stars because while
the sexy fonk on this disc tickles both my brain and boogie bone, my life wasn't changed forever like it was after FZ, Mingus, or the Meters. But if you want to rock the house with a smart,sexy and amazingly musical rock out; do yourself and any "slow-to-get-down" party a favor: get yer yayas out with the Yohimbe Brothers.

I love both Living Color and DJ Logic. And when Vernon Reid worked on DJ Logic's albums, like Anomly, true magic took place.

But where those albums took old school blues and bogaloo and modernized the forms, this is more about the beats. It is like Reid and Logic are trying to make modern dance music, and conceptually, there is nothing wrong with this.

It just feels that these two major talents are working beneath their capacity here. There are too many beats and not enough stomp. Too much dance and not enough music. In their attempt to work with a modern form, they dilute their true abilities.

It is not that they are not good enough for pure dance music. It is that pure dance music is not good enough for them.

Nice idea, but this is boring.

To be honest, I bout this out of a personal obsession with Afro-futurism. Probably having some awkward connection to me being white. Also, I'm just beginning to scrap up a Vernon Reid collection (from the bargain bins of America), but this mix has a steady beat and few speed bumps. Of course the guitar is awesomely afro-futuristic, with the kind of sound you would expect out of a locking tremolo.

sexual---hard driving music make this cd a good listen. Not for everyone but if you are a logic fan or a Vernon Reid fan this is a must.Experimental vibes give this cd 4 stars.
---anthony hanley

Music is a very subjective thing, and my fellow Arlingtonite liked this release, but I thought it was horrible. The editorial review mentions "blues and soul" and "rock." This cd has none of those, and I mean NONE. I love Vernon Reid and Living Colour, too, which is the only reason I took a chance on this release, and you wouldn't even know he is even on it. You can barely hear any guitar. If you like techno, then you may like this, if you like Vernon Reid, don't even bother. This is a complete waste of cd space.