Albums by this artist

000 (2000)

The Delta 72

000

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» PIERO SCARUFFI | STAFF WRITER

The Delta 72 000 Touch & Go, 2000 RiYL: Sly & The Family Stone, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

With Boss Hog keyboardist Mark Boyce replacing Sarah Stolfa on keyboards, 000 is a far more professional affair than The Delta 72's previous album, The Soul Of A New Machine. But what marks a definite break with the past is the band's vehement, passionate approach to soul music. Gregg Foreman and his fabulous rhythm section leave behind any vestige of intellectual noise-rock or angry hardcore and focus on what they do best: an apocalyptic mess of fierce grooves and wild wah-wah guitars.

Unlike the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or the Black Crowes, who merely "quote" rhythm and blues, The Delta 72 eats it alive. On standouts like "Are You Ready" and "Just Another Let Down," the group recalls the depraved Rolling Stones of the Exile On Main Street era and Sly Stone's psychedelic funk-rock.

The production team (Royal Trux's Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema) leaves a strong mark on this album, which at every step echoes the white R&B of the 1960s (Spencer Davis Group, Martha And The Vandellas, Mitch Ryder, Wilson Pickett, etc). The keyboards are far more prominent and the rhythm is far more direct, ruling epileptic jams like "Incident At 23rd." When the noise escalates, the guitar becomes a mere accessory. Songs such as "3 Day Packet Plan" and "I Feel Fine" are played with a torrid enthusiasm that weds garage-rock's raw energy to James Brown's hyper-funk moves, while "Great Paper Chase" charges like a southern boogie or a hard-rock anthem.

The band relaxes into a bluesier mood on the instrumental tracks. "The Doctor Is In" comes off like a cross between Janis Joplin's Big Brother & the Holding Company and Cream. The lone oddball "experiment" is left for the last track, "Sun The Secret Prince," an instrumental jam that crosses over acid and jazz-rock and samba. With Boyce's loud and versatile keyboards permanently added to the recipe, The Delta 72 have become arguably the leading soul combo at the turn of the century.

PIERO SCARUFFI | Piero Scaruffi runs the exhaustive music database Scaruffi.com. A native of Italy, he has also been praised for his work on the General Theory of Relativity, formal theories of the mind, and artificial intelligence. And no, we aren't making that up.