ESG - Come Away With ESG

Uncut punk-funk straight off the streets of the South Bronx

Hot on the heels of ESG’s latest studio collection, Keep On Moving, comes this timely trip into the recorded past of the mould-breaking Scroggins sisters. A long overdue reissue of their second album, originally released in 1983 on New York’s 99 Records (home to such fellow left-field operators as Liquid Liquid, The Bush Tetras and Glenn Branca), it is in some ways their first studio album proper (their debut was, in reality, a composite of material originally recorded for Factory, plus a selection of tunes taped live at Hurrah’s in New York). Both historically grouped alongside New York’s loose association of stylistically diverse ‘no wave’ acts and, at the same time, hermetically sealed inside their own bubble, ESG’s trademark stripped-down, bottom-heavy sound and atypical grooves have been long set them apart from the crowd. This album includes their suitably intergalactic reworking of Moody (one of their most celebrated tracks), and elsewhere, as ever, the rumbling basslines, propulsive percussion and Renee Scroggins’ distinctive vocal delivery make for highly-infectious ghetto funk. Guaranteed to shift even the most stubborn of dust deposits from deep inside your bass bins.

Soul Jazz | SJR CD/LP 150

Reviewed by Grahame Bent
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