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Review Written By - John Muller - Taken from - Blue Notes and Conversations - 2023-2024

                      

Bees Deluxe - "HALLUCINATE" - 2024 - www.beesdeluxe.com - Slapping Cat Records - 

 

 

 

               Their music is the stuff of nightmares and imagination - Think of music produced by Willy Wonka and Frank Zappa - If Alice had turned her tea party into a blues jam and left the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter in charge with Salvador Dali as the band leader . The music of Bees Deluxe is amazingly unpredictable , delightfully improvisational , and remarkably creative . Chicago blues takes a few  tabs of acid and the results are a fascinating kaleidoscope of  pulsating dreams , visions, and even nightmares . Professor Marvel is taking you for a balloon ride but it is certainly out of control .  Enjoy this roller coaster ride with all its twists and turns , spinning you every which way , your heart racing , your pulse soaring , reality crashing all around you as your senses teeter towards a new dimension . Welcome to the music of  "Bees Deluxe" and their incredible new album  "Hallucinate" . 

            Long-time fans demanded more music from this fascinating group of friends and multi-talented musicians , composers , and songwriters . So the band decided to hunker down in the forests somewhere in Massachusetts , recording an original album of 12 original songs , a project that Carol Band (keyboards , vocals , harmonica) has called " the soundtrack to a fever dream".  Here influences run deep through the colorful poppy fields , waving to you in the breeze , a carnival of color , beauty , and deception .  Whom else but  "Bees Deluxe" , a self-described "acid blues band " , can take the listener through an enormous wormhole where the music of Amy Winehouse,Edgar Winter,The Meters , Freddie King , Steely Dan,Etta james,KISS , the Joe Jackson Band , Bill Evans and McCoy Tyner , and even The English Beat , all morph together  into an alternate sonic reality.

         Sure there is plenty of blues here ( "Where Is yesterday" - a 12-bar blues that would have the Cheshire Cat grinning ear to ear as he smokes his hookah; "Call Me Frank" features more haunting harp work from Carol Band alongside Conrad Warres groovy guitar riffs ; "Another Close Shave " is a funky blues grinder with Paul Giovines steady drum beats keeping time with those distinctive guitar grooves and some rock solid work on the 88's skulking in the background) on"Hallucinate" but the bands isn't afraid to take chances weaving in shimmering acoustic guitar work; dazzling piano solos; thumping , infectious funk grooves; , hooky pop melodies , and the unique improvisational essence of jazz ." Bees Deluxe" is certainly a band unique in its variety.("How to Play96 Tears"

           For those daring enough to take a trip down that rabbit hole, Bees Deluxe and "Hallucinate" will be an unforgettable experience . With the band's inventive music-making , unique instrumentation , off-kilter sense of humor , and imaginative lyricism , this band is certainly " beyond category" as Duke Eliington was often quoted as saying . The best way to describe their music may be simply as " Bees Deluxe" .  "Bees Deluxe" is distinctly different and arrestingly original . 

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