[rating=9.00]
Stone Mecca is a Dallas artist who has worked as RZA’s musical director and bandleader. Alienman might sound like the title of a new Ace Frehley album, but it’s something much better than that. It is a mix of blues, psychedelia, and funk that makes you wonder why Stone Mecca is not better known.
As soon as you hear the guitar riff at the beginning of “If Experience Was Money”, you can’t help but think about Gary Clark Jr. As the song progresses, a real funk vibe emerges – especially in the instrumental break. Between the shredding guitar and the groovy rhythm, this sounds a lot like a lost track from the Funkadelic catalog. It ends with some wigged-out guitar feedback that no doubt would have made Eddie Hazel proud.
The intro to “Boogeyman” (especially the keyboard part – sounds ready-made to be sampled in a hip-hop song. The vibe is reminiscent of “Gangsta’s Paradise.” The song ends with an instrumental part that seems to swirl around you. Every part of it captivating from the psychedelic guitar to the funky rhythm section to the soulful vocal sounds in the background.
You don’t have to know anything about playing guitar to know that Alienman displays the goods in “Slave.” It starts as a kind of funk strut that you might find in the opening credits of a blaxploitation film. In the instrumental break, the guitar part becomes a funky psychedelic freakout that conjures images of Prince.
“Exit Door” introduces another element to the album: namely the kind of Latin funk-rock you would expect from bands like WAR. With the slower tempo and the percussion in the background of the melody, this is a song that you might expect to hear blasting from a cruising lowrider.
You can hear shades of great artists throughout the album, but there is no question that Stone Mecca is his own artist. This album is impressive not simply because it cannot be constrained to one genre, but also because Stone Mecca plays all the instruments on the album.
