Zillanova (feat Cisco Tavares & Jess Harlen) on Hope Street Records

Sometimes I think the two genre's keeping seven inches relevant are the punk/garage stuff and funk & soul releases. The punk singles out of necessity because those bands hardly stick around long enough sometimes for more than a couple of tracks, an EP or two if you're lucky. The soul / funk singles out there are being pressed out of a reverence for the medium and to tempt the DJ's actually spinning black discs or the it's tendency for these acts to release these one off collaborations with other artists or vocalists like this single on Australian Hope Street records. Zillanova is a studio based project from bassist and producer Bob Knob consisting of members with massive resumes and I just saw on their facebook they're playing with Lee Fields. End of story.

A-Side's "Suicide (feat. Cisco Tavares)" opens on warm sounding electric vibrations, the strings on that guitar working things out with each other from the back of the stage. A conga back and forth works it's way over the muted picking and Cisco comes in with a perfect balance of belting the lyric and taming it with a controlled vibrato to cool things down. Handclaps and rim shots keep this moving along between the big horn sections in that chorus of "This is suicide" as if this desire is so hopeless, there's no way there's any chance of reciprocation. Cisco sets a laidback tone working alongside the huge sound of this ensemble, keeping things classy allowing for some improvisation as this starts to fade out.
B-Side's "The Time it Takes" builds in with stabs of organ tension casually stumbling with a far off heavy wah guitar. Jess Harlen delivers a low register breathy vocal on the verse building to an emotive plea as she works her way to a chorus and the desperation starts to set in. There's no use in playing it cool anymore, as much as this starts out in a measured, collected place emotion takes over and the track reflects that shift in stuttering wakka wah and the hand swipe down the scale of wobbly organ. A massive purple haze distortion solo finally drives this home into a big finish.

I am frankly amazed this kind of thing is presently being recorded by a studio and label devoted to this sound and this is the perfect format to present it on.

Get this from the source, Hope Street or ask your local distro or discogs.