The Putbacks - The Putbacks (2018)

The Putbacks - Melbourne’s dirtiest, darkest and heaviest funk rhythm section - bring you an album of crunchy post-soul post-jazz mystery-cinema instrumentals for your turntable and your sampler. Produced by Paul Bender (Hiatus Kaiyote) and featuring collaborations with luminaries such as Bilal and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, this record is a hard-hitting, abstract journey into an alternate reality where The Meters specialised in Sci-Fi soundtrack art and Dick Dale played guitar on Madlib records. Known for their instrumental 7inch funk cuts and their collaboration with Emma Donovan, this self-titled LP is the first full-length release to the band’s name and is well worth the wait.

The Putbacks take their cues from the great house bands of the 60s and 70s soul studios - The MGs, The Meters and The Wrecking Crew, as well as film composers from David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin to Adrian Younge and contemporary instrumental groups like BADBADNOTGOOD and Khruangbin. The band play together with an uncanny rapport and near psychic intuition. Minimal, spooky, and elastic, The Putbacks slide from dance floor fire to cinematic interlude and back, from densely composed music to free improvisation, blurring all the lines in between. From the screaming guitar of the Bilal feature The Ways to the oily funk groove of Hold On and the soaring strings on No Man No, The Putbacks is destined to be a classic.