- This is the second album from Chicago’s Greenskeepers, the follow up to the well-received ‘Ziggy Franklin Radio Show’ of 2002. ‘Pleetch’ seeks to build on that record, keeping a wide variety of styles and mixing in their trademark humour, blending it all together into a coherent unit.
‘Yes’ gets us off to a perky start, its easygoing funk punctuated by drum fills – a promising opening. ‘Epiphany’ has an exaggerated vocal from Stine Kinck, calling to mind elements of Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse. Two more quality tracks – ‘Back In The Wild’ and ‘Slippin’’, and then the dud – in the shape of ‘Filipino Phil’, a rather crass attempt at humour that seems to be the ill-fated offspring of Cameo’s ‘Word Up’. One to skip, for me at any rate!
‘Keep It Down’ gets the album back on track though, a slow building deep houser that gets better with every listen, its velvet soft vocals completely bewitching. ‘Lotion’, meanwhile, is completely bonkers, a hammed-up vocal with some brilliant wordplay – who cares if it makes no sense?! The vocal is strangely euphoric and funny at the same time, and although coated in a sparse arrangement a house remix is surely inevitable.
Three good tracks to finish with start with ‘Get It’, harking back to the Keepers’ funkier, up-tempo sound. ‘Sailing’ is a lush, string led down tempo number to finish with, a logical place to sign off with some nicely soulful vocals from Diz Washington.
It’s rare to find a dance record where almost all of the styles attempted come off, but ‘Pleetch’ can be declared an almost complete success in this respect. It’s fresh, uses humour to mostly good effect and will definitely put a smile on your face. Highly recommended!