Drop
Summer Sessions
Flipped Disc
Operating in jazz/hip-hop/rock crossover land, Boston’s Drop is something as rare as a jam-band with a sense of direction and purpose. It might be the work of a good producer, or it could be because the barely two-year-old outfit hasn’t yet found the time to crawl up its collective ass. In either case, Drop has realized the limits of their potential and know how to constrain their instrumental excursions. As a result, Summer Sessions is a neatly trimmed 5-track EP of musical virtuosity that maintains focus on the music at hand, rather than on wanky solos and trippy excursions.
The opening track, “Damn I Shoulda Known,” is their finest moment here; a reggae-infused hip-hop track with a lazy, jazzy backing. Guitarist Matt Clark raps like some less elaborate, less authoritative version of that Great White Hope, Eminem, with a severe case of Bob Marley-fixation. Elsewhere, the instrumentals are less immediately accessible, but are still warm excursions with a funky backing, the band keeping their eyes and ears focused on where they’re going, never giving in to pointless escapades. Drop, basically, knows what the fuck they’re doing. They are both technically proficient and artistically hungry. Summer Sessions, as a result, is a sly but wonderful little EP.
