Fundamentalism in music, as in religion, can be repulsive. Eliot Lipp is a funk fundamentalist, but this true believer translates his staunch good-foot tenets into tracks that burst with a vibrant life force that’s anything but conservative. The 12 tracks on his 2004 debut album, Eliot Lipp (on Scott “Prefuse 73” Herren’s Eastern Developments label), leap off the disc like a cheetah with an antelope in its vision. Lipp’s funk feels spring-loaded. The disc’s best cuts feature Ultimate Breaks & Beats boom-bapitude and beatific vibes. It’s a gas to hear someone so enthralled with da funk spin so many fantastic variations on a narrow stylistic furrow.
Lipp’s latest, Tacoma Mockingbird (due January 31 on Hefty Records), finds him in more expansive cinematic mode. Actually, much of Mockingbird (Tacoma is Lipp’s hometown; he now lives in Los Angeles) recalls TV cop-show themes from the Jimmy Carter era. Lipp uses Sequential Circuits and Korg MS-20 to forge his glittering, throbbing textures and florid tunes. It’s only a matter of time before Lipp is lacing tracks for some rapper destined for platinum or scoring high-budget sci-fi/thriller flicks for Hollywood.
This article appears in Nov 16-22, 2005.