Description

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – BRSB (LP/CD) [Big Crown Records BCR155]

Steel Drum covers of Drake, Snoop Dogg & Dr Dre, Claudja Barry, The Game & 50 Cent, A$AP Rocky, Stranger Things Theme, and more.

Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, the mysterious steel pan outfit hailing from Hamburg, Germany has amassed a cult following around the globe. With a slew of classic 7”s and three critically acclaimed full-length albums, they set a high bar for themselves, one they clearly intend pushing even higher with this new offering.

On their fourth album, BRSB, the group is back with more of the same, but more of the same with them is inherently different. Covering songs that span genres and range from mega-hits to underground album cuts, they make them their own with their unique approach to the traditional steel pans of Trinidad and Tobago. While part of the allure of a new Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band album is finding out what covers they do, it is equally intriguing to see what original tunes they cooked up and this record is full of standout originals.

The album opener, “In The Crosshairs” is a rough and tough mid-tempo head nodder while both “Grilled” & “Treasure Quest” pick up the tempo with heavy African funk influences on both. Bacao goes deep with “Hazy Memories”, a bass-heavy slow burner that walks a line between hypnotic and hype. All these originals stand as a testament that the term “cover band” is a shoe that could never fi­t Bacao. However, in the tradition of steel-pan music, they do a heavy amount of covers.

This time around there is a big West Coast Hip Hop influence with covers of Game & 50 Cent’s “How We Do”, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “Nuthin But A G Thang”, and Tupac’s “Got My Mind Made Up” all of which take on new energy and lend themselves to the BRSB steel treatment. Bacao puts another certified dance‑floor fil­ler on their resume with their cover of Claudja Barry’s uber Disco classic “Love For The Sake Of Love” which they flip into a dubbed-out affair aptly changing even the title to “Love For The Sake Of Dub”.

Pulling from the contemporary smash hit section of Hip Hop they cover Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and “Love$ick” by Mura Masa & A$AP Rocky. Then they go very unexpectedly with “Stranger Things Theme” where they take the synth-heavy theme song to the hit show and give it a more hypnotizing tone than the original. By the time BRSB is through, Bacao has taken the listener on a journey spanning a myriad of energies, tempos, and moods while keeping it all under one umbrella.

For all that, these songs are alive, and they will be taken out of the context of this album and sewn into the fabric of DJ sets around the globe for many years to come. Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band continues building its legacy and pushing the boundaries of steel-pan music forward with another rock-solid musical offering.