Filled with deep, dark bass work and contagious rhythms, Oteil & the Peacemakers’ Love of a Lifetime (Nile 66:29) offers a funky fusion stew of intricately arranged, yet melodically accessible compositions. Led by bassist/guitarist Oteil Burbridge, the band displays amazing musicianship in a variety of tricky settings-from the slowburning, majestic gospel piece “Church” (featuring bass notes to rattle your chest cavity) to the gurgling, popping funk of “Butter Biscuit,” with carnival pipe keyboards lending a James Brown-in-outer-space feel. There’s a juxtaposition of modern and traditional sounds threaded throughout pieces like “Listen Bart” with acoustic nylon-sounding guitar plucks giving way to a contemporary high-stepping rhythm. The effect can be viscerally evocative as well as toe-tapping. The series of breaks and changes running through “Ankh,” for example, feels like stepping deeper and deeper into a passage. Likewise “Hymn to the Nile” offers beauty in darkness as gentle melodic snapshots of acoustic guitar and vocal pop in over a steady bass drone.
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