Need Band, Will Travel
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Dome generally deals in the soulful side of acid jazz, but Andreus’s specialty is reinterpreting Chicago soul from a hip-hop perspective–while his falsetto is reminiscent of one of his avowed father figures, Curtis Mayfield, he can also confidently ride a modern breakbeat. He writes bona fide melodies (instead of merely stringing together melismatic swoops and dips), and his vocal range adds to the drama of his material–as on “Daddy Please,” the most arresting song on Street Troubadour. On the hard funk-rock of the verses his pinched delivery recalls Bad Brains vocalist H.R.; on the lush chorus, in which the narrator begs his father to stop beating his mother, he hints at the vulnerability of Ronald Isley.
Nearly all his songs counter the dire prospects of a black kid in the ghetto with keep-on-pushin’ bromides. But there’s a heartfelt sentiment behind his lyrical cliches. Andreus grew up in the rough south-side neighborhood of Roseland; in the late 80s, when he was 16, his mother remarried and the family moved to a relatively nice area in Evanston.
Andreus is a work in progress. He could definitely use a producer’s guiding hand–taken as a piece, his album has a monochromatic feel, and the beats are often stiff and mechanical. But the disc suggests genuine talent, and with any luck he’ll get a chance to show it off in front of a live audience someday. Andreus says he hopes to play some local gigs this spring–but that without the financial support of an American label, finding musicians to back him isn’t getting any easier.
