The second album by New York’s Track & Field (a.k.a. Mike Kohler) begins well beyond where the first one left off and takes things way further. Grounded in the kind of 60′s and 70′s funk-style beats and bass lines that drove the previous release, on “All the Way, All the Time”, wah guitars, analog synths, arpeggiators, strings and Kraftwerk-like sound effects groove along with the Hammond M3 organ and Wurlitzer electric piano to give this album a whole new kind of funky vibe. Recorded using both modern digital as well as vintage analog and tube equipment, the album’s production keeps things “real” and sounding fresh.
Funk don’t die. It only multiply. And, if you don’t believe (which means you’ve been living under a rock-deluded rock for the past five decades), just listen to this latest project from musician/producer/recording engineer, Mike Kohler. As Track & Field, Kohler puts the soul into lounge, giving dedicated head nodders something funky to which to listen. Spanning the soulful jazz timescape between Richard “Groove” Holmes and John Medeski, tripping along the line between jazz and dance music, Track and Field is an experience worth having. Kohler uses a real, live bass (wonder of wonders!) and juicy Hammond grooves to insert the organic into his samples, loops, bleeps and bloops. Yet, every song has a boogie-in-your-bones, good-time feel, as though Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery left the junk joint, changed their names to Kruder and Dorfmeister, and grooved the hipster, Manhattan clubs. Kohler has a funky-good-time vision and spirit that is well-deserving of the tradition he emulates. The funk most definitely lives on.
-Bill Campbell –
www.ink19.com
If ever an album were to mimic the hip, funky rhythms of Black Grape and previous incarnation The Happy Mondays though pure instrumentalism, then NYC-based Track & Field’s debut album In Seach Ofwould hold the gold medal many times over. Mike Kohler, the versatile, well-traveled and well-versed musician is the brains & brain behind this little studio piece of production magic. Mixing in perfect combination in-the-round loops, samples, guitars, swaths of spacey synthesizers, vocoded voices, and a barrage of Hammond organ hammering, Kohler plans out a neatly designed arrangement of music that chills, ebbs, flows, and vibes to the absolute delight of the listener. Perhaps by some element of chance that good ‘ole Sean Ryder will catch wind of the amazing sounds of Kohler and his Track & Field project and lend his vocals to a track or two in remix form.
- Alkemist -
www.digitalartifact.org
Track & Field struts along to the kind of rubbery bass funky fills and rolling organs you’d expect to hear in an all 7″ set by dj shadow or cut chemist. this is the kind of down tempo, street corner break beat that ninja tunes are made of. blending undulating jive with light computer cut-ups. for fans of: the beastie boys, money mark, mo wax records.
- Tony Ware, mixer magazine
Is it live or is it electronic? how about both? new york’s Track & Field is the latest project from longtime session musician and recording engineer mike kohler who has played with johnny cash, wilco, jewel parlor james and lou reed. track & field is an enjoyable and relaxed-and-sometimes quirky-collection of old school instrumental funk and soul (often sounding like early, funk sampling hip hop), bufeted by the rich sounding hammond organ, thwappy bass and tough drum breaks. while far from a pioneering effort (several tracks sound strangely similar to the beastie boy’s fatback funk instrumentals from check your head III communication), it’s still a worthy release to check out, especially the finger snapping off-kilter rhythms of life below sea level.
- Tim Pratt, xlr8r magazine
released June 30, 2003