At first listen, Turbo Suit‘s Out Here transports you to another place. It immediately brings you to some huge field with new and old friends while you bask in all of summer’s glory and dance the day and night away. Maybe because warmer weather is closing in, and festival fever is rampant, but with it’s grandiose infectious sound, Out Here is sure to ramp up your excitement for the coming spring and summer months.
If Turbo Suit’s creativity evokes such strong feelings from a recorded electronic album, it’s pretty much a guarantee these seven songs with translate incredibly well live.
Over the past years the funkronica trio – comprised of David Embry on production and vocals, Nicholas Gerlach on tenor saxophone and EWI, and Jeff Peterson on drums – established themselves as Cosby Sweater, with the release of four albums and an abundant amount of touring. With growing negativity towards the word “Cosby,” the band morphed out of Cosby Sweater and into Turbo Suit earlier this year.
Out Here represents this evolution and shows the trio transforming into something that is fresh, fast, and stylish. Musically, the band has brought it to the next level with their new material. So, it only makes sense to “suit up” in a new vessel that showcases the band’s evolution from Cosby Sweater to Turbo Suit.
Joining Turbo Suit on this transformative journey are Jake Cinninger, Joel Cummins and Andy Farag (Umphrey’s McGee), Natalie Cressman (Trey Anastasio Band), Joe Hettinga and Marcus Rezak (Digital Tape Machine), Zion I, ProbCause, and Rusty Redenbacher. Each special guest leaves their unique mark on Out Here. From Cressman’s soulful vocals fused with Redenbacher’s rhymes to Joel Cummin’s funky keys, to hard hitting drum and bass to dreamy saxophone, this album is a nonstop musical ride that surprises you at every turn.
Starting the album off is the sexy “Rewind pt. 1” which balances the gritty hip hop rhymes of Redenbacher with Cressman’s delicately soothing vocals over groovy beats. While this may be one of the more slower songs on the album, this track is the perfect introduction to the new Turbo Suit. “Hourglass” takes it up a notch as it starts with an upbeat hip hop vibe that slows towards the middle and gives way to a smooth jazzy saxophone. With a slow build, the inevitable drop comes with a sound reminiscent to that of Big Gigantic.
The third song and first single “Coogi Wolf” is purely Turbo Suit. Agressive, loud, groovy, filthy…however you want describe it, there’s no doubt this is one of the hardest hitting songs on the album with an absolute rager of a peak accompanied by a blazing sax. “Rewind 2” brings us back to earth with a sleek velvety pulse concluding with quirky beats. The album picks up again with “Wake Up” and feeds right into the drum and base heavy “Divine.” With a hefty hitting dubstep beat and Middle Eastern synths so tight that they could charm a snake, Turbo Suits absolutely brings it with this one.
The personal favorite and album closer is “Karate” featuring Cummins and Rezak. This track is a funky free-for-all with dreamy synths and spacey rapturous keys and makes for the perfect ending.
Embry, Gerlach, and Peterson could not have done a better job at reintroducing themselves to the music world as Turbo Suit than with Out Here. This album is passively melodic and soothing when it needs to be while also managing to be a nasty in-your-face banger. This perfect balance and the ability to create music that seamlessly translates from recorded to live is exactly what will keep drawing old and new fans to Turbo Suit.
3.5/5
It all started when a much younger Jackie dove into her parents’ record collection, grabbed that trippy Magical Mystery Tour album, and played “Strawberry Fields” over and over again until it was engrained into her soul. She grew up on the dreams and stories of Simon and Garfunkel, “Bleeker Street” being one of her favorites, the seduction of The Doors, Van Morrison, because “Brown Eyed Girl” is definitely her song, and the likes of Jefferson Airplane, The Who, Jimi Hendrix…you get the picture. It may not show on the outside, but Jackie has a hippie heart, and that reflects in her musical tastes today. While some of her favorites may or may not be jam bands, her taste in music feeds into many genres. From alternative, Brit, and indie rock - OK, maybe all rock - to pop, to rap, to electronic, she loves it all. As a northerner, she thought she would never understand country until she found herself on a Georgia farm in cowboy boots watching Luke Bryan shake it for her- yeah, she got that. She is a chronic wanderluster, she doesn't believe in guilty pleasures, enjoys a great Moscow Mule, and is an absolute music festival fanatic- you’ll find her wherever the music takes her.