Artist description The Lowdown on Yellowbelly and Naked Yellowbelly’s return to recording, heralded by their new West Coast Music Award nominated CD ‘Naked’, is a happy and long anticipated event. The Vancouver band’s 1995 eponymous debut release was one of those rare musical gems that seem to come out of nowhere, bursting onto the music scene with a fresh, original sound and immediately capturing a large audience of exuberant fans. That CD, a spicy gumbo of pop, funk and African rhythms that bandleader Brandon Foreman absorbed while growing up in Kenya, East Africa, hit the Canadian Indie charts at #1. It held a #5 position for the next five months while the band performed throughout Canada, playing their rhythmically charged music on stages with, among others, The Barenaked Ladies, 54-40, Papa Wembe and Funkedelic maestro Bootsy Collins. Despite relentless touring, Yellowbelly continued to refine their music, experimenting with new influences and different instrumentation while maintaining the underlying essence of their sound: infectious rhythmic grooves, inventive song structures and intelligent lyrics. Yellowbelly began a hiatus in 1996 and Brandon Foreman spent the next five years on a number of projects-musical and otherwise-that included starting both a successful recording studio (Discovery Studios) and a family. But in 2001, after relocating to Victoria, he reformed Yellowbelly with guitar ace Ian Battle and released ‘Naked’, which has quickly earned positive notice from the likes of the Edmonton Journal and the Vancouver Sun as well as receiving airplay on CBC, Alberta’s CKUA radio and myriad college stations across the country. Soon Yellowbelly was back on the road, promoting the CD throughout western Canada and last fall, ‘Naked’, distributed by Pacific Music Marketing and Festival Distribution, was nominated for a West Coast Music Award as Best Pop/Dance Release of 2002. The rhythmic ingenuity and excellence of songcraft that were the earmarks of Yellowbelly’s first release are clearly present on ‘Naked’. But Yellowbelly’s music itself has grown and moved into new sonic realms. Their World Beat-based sound has been augmented and reshaped by British pop, jazz, trance and funk sounds, influences which Foreman has combined and distilled into a musical m�lange very much his own. A less-is-more use of guitar, keyboards, percussion and bass, (played on several cuts by Alexis Puentes of the Juno nominated Cuban band, the Puentes Brothers) –creates a sparse, sensual and often haunting texture that is buoyed along by sophisticated, dance friendly rhythms. Over top of this background, Foreman, who possesses a supple, affecting voice with a broad range of vocal nuance, delivers lyrics distinguished by content and a literary skill seldom encountered in dance-oriented music. The CD’s hypnotic opener, for example, ‘Slightly Hazy’ portrays a substance abuser’s world-weary perspective and his rationale for deciding to “burn the rock just once more”. In the CD’s poignant title cut, Foreman reflects on the bloodline that runs through him and connects his father to his infant son. But the weight of the lyrics never overpowers the inspired rhythmic foundation that propels all the songs on ‘Naked’. This foundation is laid bare on the CD’s final cut, ‘Simon’, an infectious, instrumental dance track that skillfully blends tape loops and samples with keyboard, guitar, bass and percussion to produce an intriguing and very danceable result. In short, Yellowbelly has returned to the Canadian music scene with another CD of provocative, inventive music for both the mind and the body, and it’s a pleasure to have them back. THE CRITICS LOOK AT YELLOWBELLY: “…a tangy mix of pretty much everything… beautifully produced, the record finds a comfortable balance between loose, electric rock and tight world beat rhythms. VANCOUVER SUN “…tight jazz fusion, funk and worldbeat tunes tumble out with a pop edge that makes your wonder how it all came together…infectious danceable backbeats. EDMONTON JOURNAL “[Yellowbelly] pours pop, funk, jazz-fusion and soul into a fine, danceable groove.” MONDAY MAGAZINE (VICTORIA)

Music Style Indie Pop

Location Lincoln, RI - USA

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