Truby Trio formed in 1997 when Rainer Truby, head honcho of Compost Records, hooked up with the Fauna Flash/ Voom:Voom duo, Roland Appel and Christian Prommer.
Taking their inspiration from Latin rhythms, drum 'n' bass, house and, of course, jazz, the trio immediately made an impact, along the way pre-dating the emergence of bossa 'n' bass and broken beats by several years.
The product of three passionate music lovers, their debut album is of course a diverse affair and far from being background material, 'Elevator Music' covers the basses in a comprehensive and exhilarating fashion.
It opens with easy two-step of the old Soul to Soul variety with 'The Rhythm Part One'. From here we get the first taster of a vocal Truby LP track as Marcus Begg delivers chocolate and coffee grain vocals over the top of a mellow funky groove called 'Universal Love'. It's an extremely good start.
'New Music' is closer to what we have come to expect from Rainer and co as they kick in the broken beats under an onslaught of percussion and high hats and tantalising dischords.
Having introduced soul, funk and nu jazz themes, the album now turns towards Latin America via Spain as 'Jaleo' explodes from a flamenco guitar into a Romany-Latino beat fest, over which Concha Buika provides rich, soul wrenching vocals.
Marcia Montez keeps things on a Latin tip on 'Alegra 2003', while 'A Festa' segues bossa beats into drum 'n' bass.
Despite it's migration into drum 'n' bass half way through, their old club-ad hit, 'A Go Go', starts-out like the kind of thing David Holmes produced in his 'My Mate Paul' period, or equally the sort of track that could have become a chart hit in 1998 if it had a "would you shag me now" vocal line put over the top of it.
'Bad Luck' featuring the supremely talented Joseph Malik takes its lead from his easy soul style and funks on live handclaps, finger pops and gourds.
Jumping from broken beats, via Latin drum 'n' bass, to slow and mellow funk, it would be tempting to end this review with a quip about 'Elevator' having a lot of ups and downs in tempo, but firmly staying at the top level in quality. Or saying it's an album with a lot of lift.
Which would be cliche. And this album really deserves a whole lot better.
by Ben Osborne