With contributions to albums by his Ubiquity label-mate Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra’s Voices And Choices and Galactic’s From The Corner To The Block, Nino Moschella’s follow up to The Fix in 2006 sees a more funk fuelled assault and a real soulful progression.

Without the aid of cape, utility belt or super human powers, Nino played a massive amount of live shows from his new Oakland base and between recording sessions, forged new musical friendships that ultimately helped shape Boom Shadow.

The band ‘formed’ when the drummer for the band The Park, contacted Nino on MySpace, as a fan. That was Derek Taylor and as The Park had a regular gigs in North Beach, San Francisco, Nino went to check them out on August 7th, 2007 (coincidently the night when Barry Bonds hit his record setting 756th home run) and in all the excitement, Nino jumped on stage to join them. After that, The Park soon became his backing band, the other members being Ben Schwier (keys) and Josh Lippi (bass) plus conga player Michael Aguilar who all play on the album.

And you can tell from the opening track ‘Begin’ that these guys know how to kick out the jams and that’s followed by the rock-funk of the ironically entitled ‘Sleep’ (not for fans of Paul ‘I Can Make You Sleep’ McKenna). These guys’ roots are firmly in the Sly Stone/Shuggie Otis psych-funk-super cool Californian soul with some royal Prince-ness, especially on ‘Time Of Day’ whilst getting up-to-date a la Jamie Lidell on ‘We Fight’ (a track that also features Orgone’s Fanny Franklin) and ‘Something Like?’

Only four tracks in and you know this is definitely a special album (in a week of special albums) and the rest doesn’t disappoint either; the angular indo-funk of ‘Continue To Call’, the low-down ‘Looking At Your Face’, the disjointed ‘Around the World’ and the harp and orchestra aided ‘Stella’ (a tribute to his daughter that’s very Carlos Niño ‘pyschedelic cosmic love from California’ a la 60’s The Beatles).

‘New Orleans’ is the chance for the band to show off how off-their-face they can get (brilliant) that’s in total contrast to the acoustic/horn of ‘What U Do 2 Me’ before building up to the low rider “cosmic bounce” of ‘I Love Myself’; says tuned for the leftfield bonus track, ‘Shining Thorough The Trees’.

Moschella was selected as a guest at the 2008 Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona and has struck up a friendship with another label mate and soul veteran, Darondo (who’s career was rejuvenated when Gilles Peterson put ‘Didn’t I’ on Digs America; that’d be cool if the did some tracks together?

So, if anyone says anything uncomplimentary about MySpace, you can throw this album as evidence of something great that can come about by simply clicking on ‘Add To Friends’. I must admit, I didn’t expect much from the cover but don’t let that put you off as Ubiquity always know best.

Reviewed: Nino Moschella - Boom Shadow (Ubiquity Records) Cat. No: URCD251 Release date: 18th May 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Begin (0:39)
2 Sleep (3:30)
3 Time Of Day (2:46)
4 We Fight feat. Fanny Franklin (5:01)
5 Looking At Your Face (3:12)
6 Continue To Call (3:35)
7 Running (2:45)
8 New Orleans (2:46)
9 Stella (5:34)
10 Something Like? (3:34)
11 What U Do 2 Me (2:44)
12 All Around The World (2:38)
13 I Love Myself / Shining Through The Trees (9:08)

Links:
ninomoschella.com
myspace.com/ninomoschella
www.ubiquityrecords.com/nino_moschella.html
ubiquityrecords.com
www.myspace.com/fannyfranklin
www.myspace.com/galatic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Bonds