By Deuce

Mr. Grossman, who features Patrick Ames on the former’s single, “F.W.I.W.”, which hit the airwaves early last month, gets just about everything right on this one. The beat is as simple as it is funky, as artless as it is artful, and the type of groove one simply wants to hear over and over again.

It’s predicated on a neat four-bar organ riff–although the first two bars repeat and then the final two bars repeat–that serves as the summation for the musical ideology advanced in this piece. It’s been done before, certainly, this precept of the perfection of groove. But rarely has it been done this well or, perhaps, it’s simply just been a long time since such a feat were genuinely achieved.

It’s the type of track where even without the organ, the drums and the bass go together so well one can’t help but nod one’s head to them infectiously. It’s one of those nice, easygoing, mid-tempo affairs that’s simply right for riding to, kicking poetry, or even potent social commentary, as the case may be. Just check out Ames telling you insight from “the hood” in his lyrics. His melody is straight ahead, to the point, and simply rides that rhythm for all it’s worth–which is inestimable, in the opinion of this reviewer.

The drums play a large role in this sort of innate response to this musical offering. They’re clean, crisp, and sequenced just right so that when they make their arrival–picking up the organ riff that starts the tune–they come in correctly and stay that way for the duration of the track.

You’ve got to give it up to Mark Grossman, who masterminded all of the instruments on display in this outing. He certainly knows a good thing when he hears it, and has that rare capability of a producer who can extend that knowledge–or the goodness of what he has in mind–to almost anyone else who bears witness to the tune.

Plus, he makes things better by taking his time on the organ, elaborating, articulating, and elocuting his point with a dramatic flare that both builds on and, at times, even surpasses the sheer might of the primary riff serving as the song’s foundation. This work is simply wondrous to behold—and, of course, to listen to.