''Undercurrent'' is an album by American

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

singer

Matisyahu Matthew Paul Miller (born June 30, 1979), known by his stage name Matisyahu (; ), is an American reggae singer, rapper, beatboxer, and alternative rock musician. Known for blending spiritual themes with reggae, rock and hip hop beatboxing soun ...

, which was released on May 19, 2017. It is his sixth studio release, and follows 2014's '' Akeda''. ''Undercurrent'' was recorded in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York.

Background

The album utilizes great amounts of jamming; thus, Matthew Miller considers ''Undercurrent'' to be a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

-like record, since it comes from "the same modus of musical exploration, improvisation and conversation." He states that the idea of this album was to emulate the energy of live recordings (through improvisation) that is hard to "pull off" in the studio, and he believes people will feel "its real spirit of freedom" when they listen to it"; similar to how fans tend to prefer live Grateful Dead recordings over their studio albums. Regarding the music, Miller claims he wanted to create a different kind of album than he usually makes. When discussing the making of ''Undercurrent'', he says that instead of writing and recording in the studio, he wanted to start with a live sound. So he gathered the "greatest musicians ecould find" who could play this kind of music. He spent nearly two years assembling this

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

, during which he would improvise and jam on stage (while being recorded) during tours. These jams would then be developed into "somewhat lose forms" before, lastly, recording the vocals. The songs "Step Out into the Light" and "Back to the Old" were posted as music videos on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

on April 25 and May 10, 2017, respectively; the whole album was released a day early (May 18) on YouTube as well.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

. *

– Primary artist, producer * Stu Brooks – amplifiers, bass, guitar,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

Eventide Eventide, an archaic word for evening, may also refer to: * ''Eventide'' (EP), a 1998 EP by Monique Brumby * ''Eventide'' (''Magic: The Gathering''), a 2008 trading card expansion set * '' Eventide: A Scene in the Westminster Union'', an 1878 pa ...

Moog bass The Moog Taurus is a foot-operated analog synthesizer designed and manufactured by Moog Music, originally conceived as a part of the Constellation series of synthesizers. The initial Taurus I was manufactured from 1975 to 1981; a less popular re ...

, producer, strings *

Aaron Dugan Aaron Dugan is a guitarist, composer and songwriter originally from Philadelphia who resides in Brooklyn. Dugan has performed and recorded with a wide variety of musicians and producers including Roots Tonic, Matisyahu, Trevor Hall, Bootsy Colli ...

–

Epiphone Epiphone is an American musical instrument brand that traces its roots to a musical instrument manufacturing business founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire, and moved to New York City in 1908. After taking over his f ...

, guitars, Moog synthesizer, pedals, producer * Abe Seiferth – Engineer * Masayuki Hirano – Instrumentation, Moog synthesizer, producer * Joe Tomino – Cymbals, Drums, producer, stick * Francesco Botero – Engineer,

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Joel Hamilton Joel Hamilton (born 1980) is an American Brooklyn-based record producer, audio engineer and musician. Hamilton performs as a musician for the band Book of Knots. He is also a producer and engineer at Studio G in Brooklyn, New York. In the summer ...

– Mixing * Joe LaPorta – Mastering * Michael Jinno – Assistant engineer * Joseph Bayer – Artwork

Charts

The song "Step Out into the Light" peaked at position 48 on Billboard's Mexico Ingles Airplay chart.

References

{{Authority control Matisyahu albums 2017 albums