Plug It In by Color Climax - Breakin Bread [BNB035D]

Plug It In

Color Climax

A 11 track funk album (39m 33s) — released June 30th 2008 on Breakin Bread

#soul #funk
Color Climax are one of finest musical forces to come out of Coventry since 2-Tone ruled in the early 80's. They have been consistently putting out music and gigging to become one of the UK's top funk/disco/latin bands. They first emerged on Breakin Bread Records in 2000 and they have released four 7" 45rpm singles to critical acclaim. Their sound is a mixture of live and digitally produced music. They play live as a 4 piece and sometimes they add sampled elements. It's fair to say this album has been a long time coming. The first Color Climax release came out in 1999 and we hope you'll agree its been worth the wait. "Plug It In" shows all the influences of the band. Paul T, the producer behind the band first emerged making beats for Unanimous Decision, an influential UK hip hop collective from the early 90's. Paul went on to be a prolific DJ playing anything that related to hip hop from the last 40 years and he became a resident DJ at the legendary Breakin Bread club. When Breakin Bread started putting out records in the late 90's Paul had hooked up with Steve Ashby, a keyboard player who shared Paul's love of library and soundtrack music. Whereas Paul had sought out this music for the breaks and beats it supplied to hip hop, Steve had come from the opposite direction as a dedicated keyboard player with a love for the Hammond Organ. What resulted was a marriage made in heaven, suddenly Breakin Bread could put out original funk records with Paul on the beats and Steve on the Hammond. The album contains a number of tracks made with this formula…. "Plug It In" and "Jellyfish Popcorn" both have driving beats and basslines with some classic Hammond workouts typical of Color Climax's early output. Paul and Steve then started expanding their horizons working with local musicians and trying to break out of the beats plus music formula. On "She Took My Love" they brought in vocalist Gabe to add some top notch, heartfelt vocals to the melting pot. We are now in the early 00's and Color Climax had started playing live as a 4 piece around Coventry and various Breakin Bread events. Their live mix of classic standards and original music always got the crowd going and Paul was encouraged to break out of the soul/funk mould they had been put into by releasing "Batidas Latinas". This track gives a nod to the Latin tracks in Paul's record collection with the neck snapping drum breaks now being accompanied by a soaring female vocal and a bassline aimed at summer dancefloors everywhere. The b-side to this 7", "Crabwalk" was an afterthought that really got the band respect from the Wax Poetics/Grand Slam musical community. The tracks repeated drum breaks and sparse instrumentation got it attention from break diggers worldwide. After a change in the drummer and bass player, the band were now a well honed unit and they managed to secure a support slot on DJ Format's UK tour in 2005. Despite a number of successful performances to critical acclaim, in the aftermath of the tour the band ground to a halt when members of the band moved away it became difficult to keep rehearsals and recordings going. and the conveyor belt of recorded music slowed down and eventually came to a halt after the release of a single containing "Crossfire" and "Jigsaw". Both these tracks come in that classic style of the Library Music records so respected by Paul and Steve and so sought after by hip hop producers everywhere. That could well have been it. It looked like Color Climax might never release an album and the Breakin Bread label turned its attention to other artists. However after a break of a year or so Paul T set up a new studio and started making beats again. Eventually he got other members of the band involved as session musicians and the results were the disco monster "Disque O Heights" and another latin track "Pa Coco Solo". These 2 tracks stunned Breakin Bread with their musicality, fullness and depth and both tracks have been extensively road tested by Breakin Bread's DJ's and are proving to be surefire dancefloor fillers. At this point in Spring 2007, Breakin Bread knew that a Color Climax album was finally on the cards but something was missing to make it a rounded project. Having looked for a vocalist since She Took My Love was recorded, the band finally found Nana K living round the corner in one of Coventry's leafy suburbs. 2 sessions in Paul's kitchen later "You Got What You Wanted" was in the can and the album was complete. We hope you enjoy the final product, it's certainly not your standard James Brown/Meters style funk album. Quality, soulful, organic music from the Midlands! Spread the word….
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