Alan Wilkis
Alan Wilkis – It’s Been Great
Alan Wilkis – Milk and Cookies
From Babies Dream Big: Independent [CD Baby]
Brooklyn’s New Power Generation? (Photo: Alex Marvar)
In our continuing search for intelligent life on planet Earth, we have found some compelling evidence in the form of Alan Wilkis, a multi-instrumentalist and independent musician from Brooklyn.
His début album Babies Dream Big references a whole spectrum of pop, funk and soul from the 1960s onwards, and comes out sounding pretty darn awesome. White soul moments burn out of I Love the Way, and we get a deep-down Sly Stone-style singalong in the chorus of It’s Been Great. The acoustic guitar underpinning Astronaut (Would You Be One?) is such an obvious reference that you expect Major Tom to splash-down inside your stereo.
The Wilkis aesthetic is best exemplified in the meisterwerk of the album, Milk and Cookies, which is built on successive episodes of 808 drum loops, synth-laden power pop and an 8-bit Sega-style break 2’25 that sounds like its lifted from Super Mario (or should that be Sonic the Hedghog?). The hedonistic mix provides a reminder of Beck’s Midnite Vultures (1999), but Milk and Cookies is such a blast that I don’t think anyone will mind.
Wilkis plays almost everything on the album, apart from Eric Biondo on trumpet (Antibalas Orchestra) and Jason Treuting of So Percussion, who plays drums on a couple of tracks. For more of this soul-and-funk tinged fun, the album is available from CD Baby (CD and mp3), and songs can be heard on Wilkis’ myspace.
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[...] year we reviewed Alan Wilkis‘ slightly eccentric début album Babies Dream Big, and adored its big-tent mix of pop stylings. In 2009 the Brooklyn-based musician and producer is [...]
[...] Meantime, our friend Alan Wilkis is back with a remix of Schwayze’s Get U Home – it’s currently the most re-tweeted track on Hype Machine. Other artists asked to remix the tune include Paul Oakenfold, Italy’s The Bloody Beetroots, LMFAO, and Travis Barker, (I’ll pretend I’ve heard of all of these names, in a vain attempt to prove I’m still plugged into whatever scene I’m supposed to be plugged into). So Alan’s moving into the big league now. Just remember, you probably heard him here first. [...]