Lettuce - Elevate (2019) [Hi-Res]

LETTUCE is (a) the prime ingredient in a salad, (b) a slang for cash, (c) a green herb that can be smoked, (d) a genre-busting six-member funk/jazz/soul/jam/psychedelic/hip-hop/art-rock/ambient/ avant-garde/experimental collective formed in 1992 by four alumni of the prestigious Berklee College Of Music, or (e) all of the above. Recorded at Colorado Sound outside of Denver, near the home of New York transplants and band co-founders, guitarist Adam Shmeeans Smirnoff and percussionist Adam Deitch, with legendary engineer Russ Elevado (DAngelo, The Roots, Erykah Badu), Elevate shows LETTUCE touching on its past while moving full force into the future. The band explores its funk roots in the Tower of Power like punch of Ready to Live (the cover of a song by Cold Bloods Lydia Pense), the Prince-like swagger of Royal Highness and the OG blues-soul of Love Is Too Strong, while expanded trip-hop sounds of the space age audio-scapes like Trapezoid, Gang 10 and Purple Cabbage show the influence of sax player Ryan Zoidis Korg X-911 synths and Nigel Halls Rhodes keyboards.