The Funky Knuckles belong to a new generation of improvising musicians, challenging the constraints of genre, but never losing sight of the groove. This is not your typical funk band… or jam band… or jazz band. The Funky Knuckles are something different entirely. This is the improvised music of the new generation, and it is continuously being re-defined, even as it is performed. In recent years, Texas has gained a reputation as a hotbed for groove-oriented improvised music, and The Funky Knuckles have been a part of that movement for over a decade. It is a common occurrence to hear world-class musicians sitting in at their weekly residency in Dallas, and band members can be seen as sidemen with Janet Jackson, Stanley Clarke, and Larry Carlton. The Funky Knuckles are releasing their fourth album, “Delicious” in November 2019 on Ropeadope, and will be touring domestically around the release.
Antenna, the diverse fourth album from The Gift signals a significant change in direction for this London based band, driven by a fresh and accessible impetus. The new album sees The Gift consciously moving away from the longer symphonic pieces that characterised their previous albums. Vocalist Mike Morton describes the album as "…rockier, more contemporary sounding - we wanted to do something more direct and punchy. Whilst there’s no concept, a lot of Antenna is about how difficult it is to communicate, how we’re sending out messages and they don’t hit the target".
Exumer was an early German thrash metal band with close ties to Angel Dust (their labelmates on the Desaster imprint) and a raw, vicious, unsophisticated style derived chiefly from influences like Venom, Exodus, and Slayer…