By Anthony Dean-Harris | Published October 2021
There are many reasons to love Richmond, Virginia’s Butcher Brown: their ability to generate a mood, their ever-present chops, their melding of ideas into squishy jams that constantly endeavor to eschew genre conventions. Yet over the course of the past eight years, one could give them props for their consistency, in their albums and their numerous EPs. Encore is yet another in a line of releases, these being five songs left over from the sessions that made 2020’s #KingButch, from the quintet that melds the spirits of jazz, funk and hip-hop into what is just a vibe.
Everything that was the sprawling delight of #KingButch is encapsulated in these five tracks. “For My Love” is a smooth hit that gets up in ya’, Marcus Tenney’s saxophone acting as an instrument with every bit of those entendres. “Truck Fump” is a straight-up jam from Andrew Randazzo’s bass line and Morgan Burrs’ guitar on out, with Corey Fonville killing it on the kit all the way through, as usual. Everything that DJ Harrison has crafted has worked with its own particular flair that one could easily expect the same here. It would make sense there were more gems left over from their last album, because Butcher Brown has consistently made gems.
Encore: VA Noir; For My Love; Truck Fump; Aviation (Outro); Hair Grease. (15:26)
Personnel: DJ Harrison, keyboards, production; Corey Fonville, drums; Andrew Randazzo, bass; Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney, trumpet, saxophone, vocals; Morgan Burrs, guitar.
Ordering Info: butcherbrownmusic.bandcamp.com
