By Courtney Schultz
The sound that emerges from Rev. Mary and Her Percolators is a mystical creature made up of a heartbeat and a booty. This creature was born in a cluster of stars, fell from outer-space, and splashed down into a lagoon of blues, moonshine, and psychedelics in the deep south. After soaking up as much of that lagoon muk as its pores could handle, it is now wiggling its way into our world by rearing its head of soulful, bluesy funk in Minnesota.
With previous recordings on cassette tape and wax, Rev. Mary and Her Percolators’ latest “The Rupel Session” is a clean-cut digital duo of songs with an even stronger and smoother direction than ever. More than just energy and tone, Mary Allen has got the force of soul. It’s a soul driven by rhythm and unwinding in hip-shaking, electric groove. The first track, “7 Million Hands”, sits you down around the fire of a remote village, while the local griot tells you of the tribe’s origin myths. Rumbling, “there they built a city/ in the shallows and the dunes/ clicking claws of the song/ over which their sun blooms / and in the stories of their dance/ they tell of seven million hands…” your imagination begins to get tangled in the mesmerizing storytelling, while your body gets tangled in relentless guitar and keyboard. The second track, “A New Way”, might be more earthly in lyrics, but was still born of outer-worldly psychedelic rock. Each instrument in “The Rupel Session” is listening to the others and, together, they know how to hone in and wrap you up in a galaxy where boogie rules.
Rev. Mary and Her Percolators channel their energy through rhythm and funnel it into a sound that can suck out your brain and fill your head, instead, with a funk that transforms you; prepare to sacrifice your thinking self for a dancing self.
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