Chequered Thoughts Album Review

Funkommunity slightly misled me, or at least the funk part of their name did.  I was expecting something dripping with funk-ness, but instead found an album that was less funk and more soul.

That’s not to say Isaac Aesili and Rachel Fraser don’t deliver up the funk throughout their debut album Chequered Thoughts.  The tracks Yeah and Pass It On both fall pretty squarely into the funk basket, but I thought it worth warning you right up front so your ears don’t get a surprise.

What your ears will find is 11 tracks that sound like the future of soul music in New Zealand. Isaac and Rachel are no strangers to the world of soul, having worked with Hollie Smith, Ladi6, Opensouls, Solaa, Recloose and more.

Those experiences show in the quality of the songwriting and the strength of their collective performances, with the music sitting perfectly alongside Rachel’s sultry vocals; Isaac knows when to hold back to allow the focus to fall on the vocals, and when to fill the spaces between – I’ll take a punt and say it’s his extensive work as a session musician that’s led to that sort of musician’s intuition.

Despite not finding all the funk I was looking for on Chequered Thoughts I did find plenty to enjoy and I have a feeling it’s an album I’ll be coming back to a lot as we move into summer, as well as an album you’ll probably all be hearing a lot more as the word spreads.