Baltimore funk quartet, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, came out with their second studio release last week, a full-length album titled Psychology. The album explores true funk taste and hits hard both instrumentally and lyrically in the old-school style that few modern funk bands can authentically replicate, all the while Pigeons Playing Ping Pong adapting an original sound, still. The thirteen track LP flows smoothly between the ears yet still keeps your dome rolling. 

You can purchase and/or stream the album through BandCamp for a throrough journey through jam funk that will do everything but disappoint. The album sticks out in the genre for the betterment of everyone’s own listening.

“F.U.,” the first track on Psychology, is an instant reminder of what funk started out to be. It has everything there is to offer from when funk began; from jabby lyrics to flowing but emphasized horns and on to a catchy guitar riff. It just puts a staple right from the get go that says FUNK. The entire presentation front beginning to end is similar in taste and sound. Even slower songs like “Horizon,” which has such an amazing skill touch to have that groovy dancy feel you can’t resist to move to.

There are two things on this album that to me really stick out, and they have to do with each other. First is the jamming in each and every track that exemplifies the band’s talent as musicians and the second is the track length throughout its entirety. There is only one song on the thirteen track album, “Schwanthem,” that is under four minutes, and thank you Pigeons Playing Ping Pong. The jamming is so on point when it comes in to the picture that it almost goes unnoticed at times because it’s that on point.

Psychology has just the right amount of everything for a funk album to sound the way it should, especially in this day in age. It has what the scene would consider “modern funk” elements while still going back to the roots of the genre. The band’s capabilties are reached and laid out right in front of your ears for you to take in, and I suggest you do just that.

-Brent Greene (@BrentGreene) 

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