A new shoe on the good(est) foot

Stro Elliot – Black & Loud: James Brown Reimagined By Stro Elliot
Republic Records – B0033643-01
Vinyl, LP, Album, US, 2022
info

Many years ago, I was riding in a car with someone a little older (and a lot cooler) than me. The guy went on to become a pretty successful DJ and producer, so not shockingly, we were talking music. The thing that I always remember about this conversation is this moment when the Godfather of Soul gets mentioned and the guy turns to say to me in his most serious voice "James Brown invented modern music." True enough for me.

Remixing absolute legends from decades ago is risky business. Remixing an album's worth of stone classics that form the bedrock of modern music? Not likely to end well.

Stro Elliot pulls it off though on his recent album of James Brown reworks. My last post featured a Jamaican rework of James Brown from many years ago and I thought it might be fun to follow it up with this new effort.

Elliot has become a lot more visible as a member of the Tonight Show-era incarnation of the Roots, but he's been quietly pumping out high quality productions and remixes on his own for over a decade now (listen HERE or HERE). On Black & Loud, he managed to not just avoid the usual mistakes of this type of remix set, but succeeded at making an album I'm enjoying a lot right now. 

I think it's the way he balances some key elements where it would have been easy to lean too hard one way or the other. Despite producing some pretty radical remixes here, he's got a great ear for recognizing the elements that make these recognizably still some of James Brown's greatest cuts- not just new songs inspired by them, using a few sampled elements, or sticking a quick vocal clip over a new beat. They immediately sound like the classics I know so well, but twisted into a diverse new shapes: afrobeat, futuristic funk, moments that could have been pulled from a Roots -or even Massive Attack?- album that you've never heard. It's almost like he wanted to take those old 45s where modern music was invented, and take a stab at what it would sound like for them to be used again to build tracks for a whole set of new and modern productions and styles. Dancefloor fillers and head nodders for sure, but also times where he slows it down and pull out the moments of Brown's message or reflection that you can miss in a rush to the breakbeats or funk samples.

The album stays interesting and the guy clearly knows these songs -their drums, their horn stabs, those great vocals, raps and shrieks- like the back of his hand. It also doesn't hurt that, even with this quality of work, the guy clearly doesn't take himself *too* seriously... I laughed about the song titles ("Give It Up, Turn It Loose" is billed as "Turn It Up, Give It Shrooms" and his mutant, banging version of the "The Big Payback" has become "The Big Purple Donut") and appreciated that Elliot clearly knew he wasn't trying to make something better than the originals, but playing with them to see what new places they could take us.

I've only seen this released on vinyl and digital. Definitely not a perfect pressing, but not terrible (and didn't cost a fortune). Fun stuff, I hope you enjoy and pick up a copy if you see a chance.

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Tracklist

A1 Turn It Up Give It Shrooms
A2 Sortabad
A3 The Big Purple Donut
A4 Coal Sweat
A5 Get Up Off
B1 The Goodest Foot
B2 Dragon Pants
B3 She Made Me Popcorn
B4 Machine No Make Sex
B5 Black & Loud

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