Vinyl LP, Vinyl, T-Shirt/Shirt
Three years ago, BusCrates’s Bastard Jazz debut Blasting Off gave listeners a sense of the Pittsburgh funk producer’s Kashif-esque capabilities as a collaborator behind the boards. Much like the ‘80s producer who revolutionized boogie funk and distributed it to a range of soul singers who were transitioning out of ‘70s disco, BusCrates’s debut was a family affair of guest players and female vocalists like Sally Green, Anda, and Kate Moe Dee. On follow-up Control Center, BusCrates is alone again, surrounded by an arsenal of synthesizers.
If Blasting Off was unwavering in its exploration of sophisticated funk, Control Center blurs the lines between that genre and hip-hop. It still has a sophistication in its synthesizer selection, one that—on “Early Morning” in particular—pushes BusCrates closer to Dâm-Funk’s cerebral and ambient instrumental work as Garrett. “The Control Center” heads west for a swinging G-funk bounce that nods to contemporary XL Middleton—another artist who explores the symbiosis between rap and funk. Throughout Control Center, BusCrates seeks to bridge his origins as a hip-hop producer (which includes work for a then-unknown Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa) with his current identity as a funk DJ and producer who releases music on dance labels like Voyage Funktastique and Razor-N-Tape. BusCrates sees all the dots connecting throughout time, and on Control Center, he proves past and present can coexist. On “Four-Track Mind” it feels like BusCrates is trying to summon the Weather Report riff that Q-Tip flips on A Tribe Called Quest’s “Butter,” but he can’t quite find the notes. The result is all his own.
But the life he’s truly concerned with on Control Center is his own quiet station in Pittsburgh. BusCrates has long been the humble practitioner who kept to his home studio while collaborators who came up in his city, like Miller and Khalifa, achieved international success and planted mansions in sunnier locales. Control Center is dedicated to the woodshed, the studio, the intimate fortress of solitude where ideas flow freely. “Internal Dialogue” sports a synth flourish that feels like sudden inspiration striking BusCrates as his fingertips dance across the keys. And while BusCrates might tour as a DJ in vinyl bars like Dante’s Hi-Fi or go live on Twitch to 12,000 followers, his true self is in the lab, exploring the infinity of his creative mind.
