Album of the Week – The Seven Ups Self Titled Debut
The Seven Ups are an eight piece Melbourne outfit who are blazing the Afro-beat/ Funk scene with their youthful take on the genre. After cultivating their sound for three years, featuring career highlights such as supporting fellow Aussie funk group The Bamboos, and funk/blues legend Charles Bradley, they set their sites on 2015 to release their debut self titled album. The group consists of Kelly O’Donohue – Trumpet, Harry Cooper – Flute, Tenor and Baritone Saxophones , Jay Scarlett – Trombone , Trent Sterling – Guitar , Carl Lindeberg – Bass , Marcel Tussie – Drums and Michael Sacks – Percussion. Since it’s release, the album has been consistently praised by audiences around Australia, as said by Marcel Tussie; “It’s been a supportive response, not only from punters but from other bands and fellow musicians, you know they want to get the record, they wanna hear the music on the recording and they want to support live music. It’s been a really satisfying feeling, and it’s only the beginning.” (scenestr.com.au)
The album’s recording story seems to resemble that of many young independent artists putting together a debut; rehearsed, condensed and efficient. “For us we played the songs a lot live, and we rehearsed it as well, so we knew down to the very last detail what we wanted to do in the studio; and due to the cost of studio time and the cost of sound engineers, and everyone else’s individual time; everyone has at least two or three other bands they’re playing in. Once we got the dates sorted, it was just a matter of doing four or five twelve-hour days back to back in the studio.” But don’t be fooled into making the assumption that there is any compromise on quality. The Seven Ups have grabbed the Afro-beat sound by the jugular and brought it into the new age. The genre is seeing a small revolution not only in Melbourne, but also in Brisbane with ‘Cleons Three’ being of note who are also driving renewed support for the sound. The album is all about the jam. It captures their vibrant live show’s without loosing any sense of the mood or electricity that some albums seem to project once they get locked into a sound booth and ‘normalised’ a mixing desk.
To hear more about the album, tune in to Friday Drive with Stacey Lymbrey from 4PM on Friday the third of April with special guest, guitarist Trent Sterling of The Seven Ups!
The group are currently touring the album around Australia as part of its launch with a pending Sydney date. Be sure to tune in to Take One (Friday 12-2PM) for all your live music news, and let the guys from The Seven Ups know how much you want them in Sydney via FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, BANDCAMP or at their website https://www.thesevenups.com.au/
Also be sure to tune in this week to 89.7FM EASTSIDE RADIO for your chance to WIN a copy of The Seven Ups debut album. You must be a supporter to win so make sure to sign up at https://eastsidefm.org/support-us-2/. Don’t forget you can also stream the station at www.eastsidefm.org.
