The Olympians: The Olympians [DAPTONE]

Why you'll love it

This Daptone LP comes with a download card. Toby Pazner gathered players from the Dap-Kings, Menahan Street Band, El Michels Affair and the Arcs for a lush, orchestral take on instrumental soul.

This edition

• Download card included

About the album

Toby Pazner was touring the Greek islands when a dream told him to build a temple of sound and retell the old myths in music. He took the instruction seriously, went home to Brooklyn and got to work.

He started in his bedroom in 2008 on a Tascam 388 tape machine, slowly gathering gear, then spent years writing arrangements for strings, harp, vibes, guitar and keyboards, all laced with horns. The band reads like a Daptone family reunion: Thomas Brenneck, Dave Guy, Leon Michels, Nick Movshon, Homer Steinweiss, Neal Sugarman, Aaron Johnson, Michael Leonhart and Evan Pazner. "Sirens Of Jupiter" opens in a swirl of strings over a deep soul groove, "Mars" marches with brass, "Venus" and "Diana By My Side" turn sweet and romantic, "Apollo's Mood" glides, and "Pluto's Lament" and "Sagittarius By Moonlight" turn dreamy and nocturnal.

KEXP made "Sirens Of Jupiter" its song of the day, and Daptone bosses Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman were happy to put the album out. Pazner began it in 2008 and finished it in the spring of 2016, which puts our record-cleaning backlog in a rather kinder light.

Also at Kops: more The Olympians on vinyl · browse 70s Soul On Up

Tracklist

Listen

On Daptone (cat# DAP-044), the 2016 album.