Search - Yohimbe Brothers :: Front End Lifter

This ain't about the, ahem, wankery people!

Chad M. Werner | nowhere is my home, mn | 11/16/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"in a word: awesome. in a couple of other words, if you are expecting a rock guitarist's album with a turntableist thrown in as window dressing, you will surely be mistaken.if you are looking for an album that is nearly always interesting, never boring, and is sometimes quite funny, you should pick up "front end lifter".this is the surprise of the year for me. the things that these two cats can do with their instruments is amazing."

WTF? Wake up & Groove on this peeps! 4.5 stars, really!

Christopher J. Scroger | Austin, Tejas, y'all! | 02/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Why this band was never a big hit I STILL cannot fathom.

Is it because Vernon Reid & the YBs are not descended from pasty, seasick oarsmen who arrived on the Mayflower? Or is it because the sweaty, pumping, and face-melting INFOTAINMENT contained on FRONT-END LIFTER joyously overflows with a kinetic, thought-provoking and humorous blend of funk-hop, psychedelia and blazing guitar pyrotechnics? I'm still scratching my head! But my toe's still tapping as my

butt boogies and funny bone shivers with delight while Vernon & Co. funkify my life like few other band can (the Meters, Garage-A-Trois, Pfunk and early Chili Peppers - WTF happened, Flea? - come to mind!). The Yohimbe Brothers (Reid with DJ Logic playing mind-bendingly tasty turntables + a crack team of PLAYAS extraordinaire!) simply crank out supercharged guitar funk that not only'll get your grandma out on the dancefloor, but will also fry your synapses with acid-drenched guitar shredding and a battery of crazy sounds that all bounce along with the intensity of horny teenager on Red Bull and a first date with his new girlfriend. The hyper-funk workouts

ripping outta this CD are enough to lift the roof off any house-party while the proficiency of the players should satisfy all but the snobbiest of true MUSIC-o-PHILES. The cast of performers assembled here by Reid allows F-EL to play out a dizzying array of stylistic twists all rooted in guitar-shred funk. Latasha N. Diggs simultaneously melts and steels every guy in the room with her super sexy rap in "Psychopathia Mojosexualis". Whereas Slick Rick and Prince Paul

scope out the pick-up bar with horny hilarity as VR & the band rip a sick groove behind them. Their guitaristic jams exquisitely layed down with Hendrixian muscularity prove to be the musical glue binding this stylistically diverse party record together. Vernon and Logic also spread their experimental wings and blast our earholes with sick guitar-soaked slabs of HIP-HOP PSYCHEDELIA via "Ponk" and "Tenemenatal". Our fearless music professors then tweak our knobs past ELEVEN by sampling a SQUARE DANCE CALLER and cranking up the groove factor again with the harmonica-funk hoedown of "Bamalamb"...WHOO-EEE! That un' blowed up, real good! So get off yer rumps and prick up your ears because this band came here to FUNK YOU UP! I can only deal this outstanding album FOUR AND ONE HALF stars because while

the sexy fonk on this disc tickles both my brain and boogie bone, my life wasn't changed forever like it was after FZ, Mingus, or the Meters. But if you want to rock the house with a smart,sexy and amazingly musical rock out; do yourself and any "slow-to-get-down" party a favor: get yer yayas out with the Yohimbe Brothers."