Each song on Ghost Funk Orchestra’s 3rd album, A New Kind of Love, due
to be released on Colemine Records … 2022, resonates like the
soundtrack to a scene from an imaginary movie. The music could score a
romantic drama, an action thriller, or a modern twist on a classic film noir.
The spare, cascading vocals accentuate the lush instrumental
orchestrations composed, performed, arranged and produced by
multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum, whose latest brainchild was
conceived and conceptualized during The Great Pause of 2020, a time of
tension, bewilderment and isolation. Evoking the grooviness of an era
which preceded his arrival on earth, Applebaum draws upon sonic devices
of mid-century exotica and the succinct but dense arranging style of the
leaders of the pop orchestras which dominated the hit parades of the 60s
and early 70s. He blends impressions of this bygone era with an
expression of his actual experiences as a young filmmaker coming of age
in the 21st century, citing influences such as Sharon Jones & The Dap
Kings and Antibalas. A New Kind of Love encompasses a reverence for the
past without attempting to recreate it.
In the tradition of the “production forward” discographies of such record
makers as David Axelrod and the Mizell Brothers, it’s easy to visualize
Applebaum as a “mad doctor” figure, hunkered down in a studio
channeling this musical representation of his inner world into the 12
compositions which make up A New Kind of Love. His writing stretches his
psyche to explore a terrain in which to capture emotional notes of love
going well, love gone sour, manifesting love songs based in ghostly affairs.
While the studio is obviously a wondrous happy place of experimentation
and creativity for Applebaum, he’s a band guy too (having actually fronted
punk outfit The Mad Doctors). Applebaum has the wherewithal to bring his
dreamy material to the 10 piece all star Ghost Funk Orchestra, leading
them to breathe life into this sophisticated body of work which heralds the
celebration of a new era for the group. Ghost Funk Orchestra will be touring
in concert this summer and fall to celebrate the release of A New Kind of
Love, an album which is sure to stand the test of time.