Knowledge Shine Bright (Fort Knox Recordings, 2014)
Following up on their 2011 self-titled release See-I, the Washington DC-based See-I is back with 12 new tracks on Knowledge Shine Bright on the Fort Knox Recordings label. Furthering their brand of reggae-soul movement, See-I sets out to shine bright the funk, house, dancehall, hip-hop, R & B and rock fusion on Knowledge Shine Bright. Smart and savvy, See-I rocks listeners with a sound that’s infectious and refreshing.
Arthur “Rootz” Steel and Archie “Zeebo” Steele, the brothers behind See-I’s sound and regular frontmen for Thievery Corporation, are joined for See-I by Rob Myers on guitar, Ashish Vyas on bass, Jeff Franca on drums, Frank Mitchell on saxophone and Salem Steele on keyboards. Adding an extra kick for Knowledge Shine Bright are guest rappers Mr Lif and Flex Mathews and singers Candice Mills and Edy Blu.
Knowledge Shine Bright leaps headlong into a reggae infused sound for “Never Give Up,” a tribute song to the Steele brothers’ mother. This hip feel-good sound is hard to resist with easy beat and punctuated by the sweet swing of brass. See-I has more reggae sass on tap with “Real Steel and the sharp “King of the Road.”
Knowledge Shine Bright turns razor sharp with some delicious funk on “The Boogieman” with Ms. Mills and Ms. Blu offering up some sultry backing vocals and Mr Lif adding his lines to the mix. “The Chase” boasts some Afropop guitars against a house beat that’s sure to make this a popular dance track.
Title track “Knowledge Shine Bright” is threaded through with some stellar vocals that hint at the Steele brothers’ background in North Carolina and their funk, soul and gospel influences.
Other goodies include the breezy groove backing “Musical Murder,” the silky smoothness of “Queen of Sheba” and atmospheric edginess of closing track “Revolution.”
Author: TJ Nelson
TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow.
Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931.
Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.
