Rare Sounds live up to their name through musical telepathy and short-hand in “Yeah, You!” The band is comprised of founding members of The New Mastersounds and The Greyboy Allstars: Eddie Roberts (guitar), Robert Walter (keyboards), Chris Stillwell (bass), and Zak Najor (drums). Walter had workshopped the tune in several projects, but it found its home with The Rare Sounds during the band’s session at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco, CA. Walter describes “Yeah, You!” as “70s jazz-funk and fusion before the edges and dissonance were smoothed over to make it more commercial.” The modal melodies over a funky beat capture a sense of urgency and psychedelic possibilities to be explored by a new ensemble of trailblazers in the modern funk and soul revival.

‘The Hit’ by WRD Trio is the debut album by the organ trio of acclaimed musicians Robert Walter (The Greyboy Allstars, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress), Eddie Roberts (The New Mastersounds), and Adam Deitch (Lettuce/Break Science). Spurred out of a small handful of one-off performances where the trio found themselves at the same festival, both artist chemistry and popular demand brought the group to the Color Red Studios with sessions in summer 2018 and winter 2019. ‘The Hit’ is the result of refined musical synchronicity and reveling in vintage straight-to-tape recording techniques. The trio embraced the immediacy of metamorphosing short demo songs into consummate arrangements with no headphones, minimal overdubs, and live recording. With no time to question anything, ‘The Hit’ authentically captures the interactions between the first-rate musicians and the raw, natural sounds of the instruments in the room together.