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Iowa State Daily Reviews Fredalba

September 17, 2003

Fredalba
"Uptown Music For Downtown Kids" (Piller)
Compare to: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sublime, Bob Marley

If Bob Marley and The Red Hot Chili Peppers had six musically gifted children, Fredalba's latest is what their music would sound like.

Fredalba's mix of funk, reggae, rap and hip-hop has an upbeat and syncopated feel, yet is laid-back and soul-soothing at the same time.

The listener can picture college students and high school sweethearts dancing and jiving.

Add in the Latin-influenced back beats, and you can picture those students participating in a community line dance and a massive, hands-in-the-air sing-along.

Fredalba has added a flute and turntables to its "wall of funk" sound.  The flute melodies are a dead-perfect fit with the heavy drum and bass feel.  Flutist Charmian Callon's solos should be laminated, engraved onto platinum and transferred to paper so every aspiring flutist can learn them.

Eric Balfour's voice is one to envy. He hits every note with precision and grace. Fredalba could just as well be called the Eric Balfour Band without much argument.

Balfour has a hand in all of the song writing, and the band is right there, perfectly complementing his every rhyme and vocal fluctuation.

One might think Fredalba's members spent decades composing these songs, and that very well may be.

If you search high and low for poorly written songs, you will find none, unless you flat-out despise funk music.

The stand out track, "Gimme More," is the "grind with the finely tanned girl in the pink dress" prom theme song.

"Gimme More" has all the elements of a groover as well as a sing-along.

The song also serves as a perfect lead-in to "Get Up," the album's festive, melodic track.

During the chorus, one can almost smell the aroma of hamburgers and brats cooking on the grill and picture the raging bonfire as shiny, metallic beer cans are held high with pride and everyone delights in dancing and singing with complete strangers and close friends to this album.

-- Dan Hopper

© 2003 Iowa State Daily

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Monday March 1, 2004

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