It is early Monday morning, and a writer sits at her desk to ponder a long overdue review. It comes in the form of a live album - a band who had released live material before but this is their first purely live album. The name is Ese & The Voodoo People, a personal favorite whose powerhouse of rock-n-roll soul made me a fan from the early stuff.
Ese & The Vooduu People have produced exhibitions of energy before, but there is something special about the authenticity that is displayed on the band’s newest release Mercury In Retrograde (Live at The Troubadour 7/3/20). Described as a 100% accurate representation of the band in concert, it was recorded right before London first went into Lockdown. It seems rather surreal to me just how the music industry has changed in a year. And yet, Ese & The Vooduu People is one of those bands who have remained inspired and are releasing fantastic music.
In the case of the new album, if this is your introduction to Ese & the Vooduu People, I’d say there is no better introduction. There is something about a band’s live shows that in my opinion really proves exactly just how talented a band is. On a proper live album, you don’t have the opportunity to rehearse and choose the best take; what you hear is what you get. And in this case, what you get is utterly spectacular!
Most of the tracks were first found on the debut album Up in Smoke, and there are a couple covers as well. The overall effect is electrifying! Ese’s vocals in the studio are something I had admired on the debut and had been greatly impressed by her vocals on the earlier live tracks. The sound of Mercury in Retrograde is even more impressive.
Starting off with their signature song “Up in Smoke”, the music kickstarts. Instantly, the listener is filled with the kind of emotion that only comes with live music: a dazzling, rising euphoria and excitement as dopamine kicks in. This feeling is one that is carried throughout the album as the music carries on.
While the band’s previous live material did not have audience banter, leaving it in on this album adds to the concert atmosphere that is missed and longed for in this post-Covid world. The energy continues to build on the second track “Fairytale”. Being the closest thing to an Ese & The Vooduu People concert I can see in the United States, it really makes it a great experience.
What makes a concert special for me is when you are familiar and know the music like it is a layer of your skin. In the case of Ese & The Vooduu People, this is very true as I have enjoyed the band’s previous material. Hearing it in a live fashion is filled with both nostalgia and freshness.
One of my favorites off of the debut album was the song “Grey”. Before the studio version off of Up in Smoke was released, a live version was on the EP Dynamite. This most recent version is a showcase of awesomeness. The guitar solo carries the band’s funk influence as the song stretches into a jam.
Something that really added to the experience of the debut album and earlier EP was the sheer musicality of the band’s sound. Sheena Ross and Ese’s harmonies add so much to the music that it is an essential part to the Vooduu sound. These harmonies shine through on a song that makes its first appearance here: “Grenfell Blues”.
With Mercury indeed being in Retrograde the night of the concert as mentioned in the album title, it makes for a different show than perhaps what was planned. Ese herself says that “Silver Spoon” is typically their last song in the set but the band decided to do it early on about halfway through the set.
Alix Anthony joins the band for the rest of the set from here taking up lead guitar and vocals on a Hendrix cover. “Bold of Love'' is such a classic song - anything from Hendrix, truly - but the band manages to capture the same free spirit and rock-n-roll soul from the 60s. That same bit of feeling that comes with rock ‘n’ roll, soul, and funk is really the best definition I can try to apply to Ese & The Vooduu People. Simply a band who understands that emotion and soul is a necessary aspect for music and pushes with this philosophy into their sound. This aspect, of course, oozes from their music especially when performed live.
The music continues with a few more covers including “She Said” which was released as a single and had been the origins of my interest for this album. “Police and Thieves” is arguably a song that is even more relative to these current times. It is interesting hearing the band play in a reggae style but it works! It is nice to see a different side of the band - but is it really much different? The emotion and energy is still there, and it shows that this band is versatile and shines with their soul-rock sound.
As the music wraps up with “Alien”, a track from the debut album, that same energy from the very start has not lost its charm. So while the world has certainly changed since March 2020 to say the very least, the sound of Ese & the Vooduu People continues to carry some of the same elements from their studio album onto the stage. And it makes for a great experience of live music that is oh-so-welcome in these current times.
So if you need something to take your mind off the news or simply just need good music to listen to, give this album a listen. Stream it if you want - but buy a copy as I would think this energy, soul, emotion, and the atmosphere that carries it shines through even brighter on a physical format. I had forgotten exactly how much live music meant to me and how it can have such a strong impact so I thank Ese & the Vooduu People for this amazing album.
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