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Artist
Scott Fisher & 1A.M. Approach
5+ albums
indiereggaepopalternativeindie rock
about
Singer/songwriter/pianist Scott Fisher's background is in jazz fusion, a style he's never left behind, even as he's moved further and further into the pop and rock world in recent years. Rock critics grabbing for comparisons have latched onto artists as far afield as Joe Jackson and Billy Joel, Coldplay and Dave Matthews, Ben Folds Five and Maroon 5. But none of those begin to capture the unique beauty of Step into the Future. To do so, one has to look in an entirely different direction, towards the SoCal reggae scene, and perhaps to Sublime at their most sublime. Famously, ska (reggae's earliest form) was a mis-step by veteran Jamaican big band musicians attempting to play R&B. Accepted wisdom, but still a giant leap if you play the two genre's records side by side. But on this set, Fisher provides a clutch of missing links, beginning with "Step into the Future", a gently infectious jazz-pop number, with an exacting rhythm and prominent bass line, that with slight shifts in emphasis step straight into the syncopation that defines reggae. The societal battering lyrics shout roots to the rafters, while surely the reference to "rebel music" is a nod to the Bob Marley song of the same title. "Step" provides reggae's origins in jazz, "Shades of Blue" its debt to R&B. The backing female vocalists and the exuberant trumpet solos evoke both Motown and Kingston, while the instrumental break swirls in a touch of British invasion. This is 60s pop at its genre bending finest. R&B e
