Revelators Sound System is an instrumental musical project by
Hiss Golden Messenger's
M.C. Taylor and
the Spacebomb House Band's
Cameron Ralston. Conceived and recorded across 2020 and 2021 at
Taylor's North Carolina studio and at
Spacebomb's Virginia rehearsal and recording space, it consists of four tracks spread over 34 minutes, and the music crisscrosses spiritual jazz, dub, spidery funk, ambient music, and more. Among the duo's 12 collaborators are clarinetist
Stuart Bogie, tenor saxophonists
JC Kuhl (who doubles on bass clarinet) and
Drew Sayers, drummers
Pinson Chanselle,
Philo Tsoungui, and
J.T. Bates, keyboardists/pianists
Daniel Clarke and
Devonne Harris, pedal steel guitarist
Rich Hinman, and percussionists
Brian Jones and
Reggie Pace.
Revelators employs hypnotic modal grooves inspired by '70s-era spiritual jazz -- particularly the contemplative atmospheres of
Alice Coltrane,
Pharoah Sanders, and
Marion Brown -- as they meet mutant, spacy, layered funk in four lengthy instrumental jams.
Opener "Grieving" emerges with a martial snare, a moaning tenor sax, and ghostly piano chords. The first few minutes recall
Brown's
November Cotton Flower in its studied warmth and modal melody. A rumbling clarinet enters alongside
Ralston's thrumming bassline and
Taylor's chunky guitar chords. The saxophone moves afield and begins wailing as piano, Rhodes, and clarinet vie for dominance, entwining modal jazz and funk. "Collected Water" is a spectral ballad arranged as an extended intro. Bluesy saxophone and reverbed acoustic piano drop layers of cascading notes framed by
Ralston's wayward bassline. Clarinet haltingly joins the tenor as organic percussion hovers in the frame. "Bury the Bell" is rich in dubwise effects beginning with breathing chords from
Taylor's guitar as clarinet, shimmering organ, Mellotron strings, and pedal steel dig into
Alice Coltrane's modal fakebook and emerge with droning, blissful, circular, Eastern-tinged inspiration. The seemingly breathing strings deliver the amorphous theme as clarinet, saxes, guitars, and textured keyboard sounds emerge from the ether. Closer and first single "George the Revelator" commences with rolling, breaking snare, funky bass and guitar lines, simmering organ and clarinet, and a gauzy sax and clarinet trading lines. Sophisticated soul a la
Allen Toussaint or
the Meters crisscrosss in the foreground as a looped snare and tom-tom shuffles meet a braying sax line atop a dubwise rhythm section. Moody, steamy, and shuffling, its lithe nocturnal funk groove intersect with keys, reeds, and winds.
While
Revelators doesn't sound anything like other projects from these men, it doesn't sound completely alien, either. They remain in the same aesthetic ball park. The musical ambition on display in this loose, warm, provocative set remains close to spiritual jazz roots, wandering ethereal blues, and minimal funk. On a side note, ten-percent of the record's proceeds will benefit
Colin Kaepernick's Know Your Rights Camp. ~ Thom Jurek