js At first glance its fairly obvious that Meshell Ndegeocello’s new album “Ventriloquism”, is a set of cover tunes, but these versions are far more than mere copies, instead, Meshell and her quartet transform each of these songs into something much more than what they were originally. The 80s are often maligned as a musically plastic decade, and there is some truth to that, but listening to how Meshell has taken a handful of mostly lackluster 80s corporate pop tunes and turned them into something deep reveals that there is some gold hidden within this seemingly musical muck. This is an excellent album anyway you look at it, but when you consider what this material sounded like before Ndegeocello transformed everything, it makes “Ventriloquism” into something truly inspired. These pop/RnB songs were the soundtrack of Meshell’s youth, which helps explain why these are the songs she would choose to work with in the first place.

Apparently Meshell’s band spent some time listening to Neil Young’s lonesome and world weary “Harvest” while recording this, and that lowdown country flavor comes through as many of the tracks open with simple finger picking folk/blues guitar, the complete opposite sound that these songs had back in the 80s. Once the tracks get rolling though, guitarist Chris Bruce and keyboardist Jebin Bruni start weaving layers of soft psychedelic sounds that give these songs a pleasant hallucinatory drift. The salient feature are the tempos, all of them quite slow in a very mesmerizing way. Kudos to Meshell that she didn’t break this mood with any ‘uptempo’ numbers, as such a move would have surely hurt the thorough integrity of this art pop masterpiece. Listening to the persistent down-tempo mood of this album may remind some of Roxy Music’s “Flesh and Blood”, on which they also took hot blooded hits like “In the Midnight Hour” and “Eight Miles High”, and turned them into sensual drifting dreams.

So many interesting transformations take place on “Ventriloquism”, but possibly the most surprising is George Clinton’s techno funk hit “Atomic Dog”, which somehow becomes a blissed out psychedelic folk number that early 70s Pink Floyd would have been proud of.

Matt Released in 1996 , three years after her debut "Plantation Lullabies" but here Me'shell Ndegeocello with her follow-up album "Peace Beyond Passion" has slowed the beat just a little increasing the quality actually and bringing something to her music that no other artist has with sublime vocal restraint yet the instrumentation is quite another matter at times throughout the production. First and foremost Me'shell is a wonderful bass player but her vocals are nothing to sneeze at either and although we have a Hip Hop delivery with her technique at times, Me'shell still sings within areas of her songs but with restraint never really hitting any vocal heights per-say but still right on that funk/soul beat and this is where the albums appeal squarely lays with that restraint. This is not an album one should listen to once as it does require a bit of work but the reward is there with every play bringing the music's quality to the fore. Me'shell has performed with quite a few artists these days with quite an assortment as she had her biggest hit with John Mellencamp ("Wid Night"), played with Herbie Hancock and of course Madonna being one of the owners of the Maverick Label at this point in time. They say it was Me'shell Ndegeocello who started the Neo-Soul movement and I would have to agree as when I purchased "Peace Beyond Passion" and first played the album it was nothing quite like I heard before with her own take on two songs by Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye. The other ten songs on the album are all composed with various collaborations by Me'shell Ndegeocello and not a poor one in amongst the lot and all with an original distinct sound with a funk groove always permeating underneath. One other great point concerning the album is we have a young Joshua Redman providing the saxophone as required on various tracks with the addition of Billy Preston's keyboards in "A Tear And A Smile" and Luis Conte provides all the percussion as required giving the album a great continous flow as they are not just on one track excepting Billy Preston and basically are just part of the band.

Twelve numbers with the short piece "The Womb" being the albums intro and laying down quite a nice little groove with Oliver Gene Lake's drums tapping away nicely underneath on this instrumental which just links to the following "The Way" with Me'shell using spoken word to the tune's commencement but that sublime funk groove starts coming with the vocal restraint and the backing vocalists taking the high points and of course that bass of Me'shell's is just trading in amongst the drum programming and do not fear the programming is good. More of that slow funk following with "Deuteronomy:Niggerman" with Me'shell singing alll she "Wanted was a Niggerman who would be true" with Joshua Redman putting in some lovely fast sax additions and the following number "Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart" could be considered one the albums ballads and once again that vocal restraint is superb as much as that crunchy lead guitar is right throughout. Two of the albums high points are "Mary Magdalene" which is followed by the brilliant "God Shiva" with the chant from Me'shell during the brilliant building lead break from the guitar of David Fiuczynski of "Free me from this world, free from my body, free me from this world", gorgeous original stuff. The Bill Withers tune is next "Who Is He And What Is He To You" and that funk is all over it and this was the albums single. The track that I must also mention is the beautiful take on Marvin Gaye's "Make Me Wanna Holler" with a running time of just under nine minutes and Me'shell's big bass sound with her vocals just riding this sublime slow groove right throughout. There are few others I did not mention all are good.

Originality is something we all search for in music as it is a freshness for our ears and as time goes by we seem to be having more of the other where although it is new we have heard it before but when this album came home back in 1996 I found I had one of those freshies that are often a one off such as this beautiful re-interupatation and modernisation of Soul and Funk with a little Hip Hop thrown in for good measure. Great stuff but as I said before, give this a few plays before you make your decison which will most likely be the same as mine. Wonderful music.