Jean-Paul Bourelly and the Bluewave Bandits • Blackadellic-Blu

Re-up bandcamp

Blackadelic-Blu was conceived during a time when Jean-Paul Bourelly was throughly entrenched in an urban sound influenced by his clubs of downtown New York in the early 90's. It was a sound that merged Chicago blues roots with rap aesthetic.
Bourelly implements some of his favorite psychedelic colorations coupled with tight grooves heard on previous releases like Trippin and Saints and Sinners with a selection of songs that make the blues at home in this east cost urban context.

What comes out is an omni force in Black music. Bourelly's penchant for walking the tight rope between established genre's are eclipse only by his ability to transform what starts as a tight musical premise into something wide and original.
"Steppin on the Giant" a song of defiance about facing the challenges of finding ones way as the corporate monster looms, is a great example of jazzy funk that on further reflection is quite something "other": "as I walk through that cold New York city street, I'll be steppin on the giants feet" goes one phrase. "Thinkin bout money" with its dusty, echoey guitar and "Travelin Across the Land" (produced by Djinji Brown ) feature rapper Asheru of the Unspoken Heard appearing on Blackadelica as Blue Black. His confident, matter of fact delivery of the text complete this other worldly urban package.

Bourelly's guitar does unleash more of his virtuoso-ish fire power on track like "Restless Wave" which ends in an eerie sanctified vamp out reminiscent of another favorite blues with a cathartic swell, Blues for Muddy (Saints and Sinners DIW 1993)

Jean-Paul Bourelly Bandcamp

 

Jean-Paul Bourelly
  guitar, vocals, subatomic guitar bass, keyboard bass
"Kundalini" Mark Batson • keyboards, vocals
Blue Black • rap
Carl Bourelly • programming, keyboards
John Stubblefield • tenor saxophone
Mark Peterson • bass
Alfredo Alias • drums, back vocals
Kevin "K-Dog" Johnson • drums
Djinji Brown • sample programming