Slide 5

Few San Francisco bands have evolved like Slide Five. Once known for packing clubs with their own take on the retro jazz funk revival (check the classic Rhode Trip), the trio have recently emerged with a new album that is packed with new musical ideas. Mixing live performance with loops and samples, Slide Five dive head on into the worlds of drum and bass, dub, soul and jazz. People, Places & Things is a fusion album for the 21st century and brings the band full circle. "We started four years ago, with the goal of combining jazz with modern technology and dance music. We were basically a straight live band playing lines over computer grooves," says guitarist John Warrin. Moving from New York back to their native San Francisco in 1993, John and keyboard wielding brother Dave teamed up with drummer Guy Gershoni. They abandoned their samplers and sequencers in favor of a more organic approach to performance. "At the time San Francisco was really a live music scene and during our first year we played well over 200 gigs in the city alone," says John. Rhode Trip, Slide Five's debut album, documents their favorite tracks from that time, including some recorded with top London saxophone man Jacko Peake (session player for Paul Weller, Push and The Young Disciples). In 1994, Slide Five took a break. San Francisco's vibrant live scene had turned stale with an overabundance of live acid jazz bands killing off the initial excitement. Innovation was low except from a collection of DJs who were pushing the boundaries of club music into the eclectic state it currently finds itself in today. Looking for inspiration Slide Five relocated to New York and dug up old synths and effects while acquiring a few new studio toys. Here, with a change of cultural pace and attitude the seeds were sewn for People, Places & Things. Moving back to San Francisco, they finished the album by teaming up with the likes of the Automator (producer of Dr Octagon, engineer for DJ Shadow and a Ubiquity recording artist, too). People, Places & Things brings out our base influences of dub, dance and experimental music, it's an excursion into sounds, textures and vocals," says John. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.