The Olympians Self-titled Debut | Amongst Best Instrumental Soul Of 2016

Fresh off the grill comes the full release of The Olympians debut self-titled album. Who are the The Olympians you wonder? Well, it’s actually a bunch of bands, a sort of super hero team comprising of Daptones, Menahan Street Band and the Expressions, all starting with multi-instrumentalist Toby Pazner’s trip to Greece. As you do in a place of serene beauty, a bit of day dreaming about the God’s and Olympians that gave life to ancient Greece, sparked an idea to create a soul record in that spirit.

Song titles like ‘Mars,’ ‘Saturn,’ and ‘Sagittarius By Moonlight’ play off this soul version of ancient times, on however the record you’ll hear some of the world’s top soul musicians, Pazner is very forward about wanting to select this team, having a special place at Daptone helps finding the players that define soul music today, as much as ever for sure.

Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, Charles Bradley, The Budos Band, Manahan Street Band, are just some of the names this album will likely sit very nicely with on your vinyl self. There’s uptempo horns, the iconic string sounds of the 70’s, and even sultry slow burners that have the groove that could change the mood in an instant, essentially the record works in many ways as a listening experience.

When I think of revival soul and jazz in the modern age, this is the kind of work I want to share with friends, this is a happy medium of new and old, and because it’s new to us all, it builds off the building blocks of some of the most talented artists in the genre, and readily becomes new music for new times and thereinto new memories.