You want obscure artists? You got it here, as some “anonymous” performer and composer gets together a bunch of artists for first take recordings of original material. The flexible musicians include a bunch of drummers (Ross Pederson, Nate Smith, Ryan Gruss, Chris Kimmerer, Jared Schonig, Mark Guilana), a handful of guitarists (Jeremy Most, Robin Macatangay, Max Bernstein, Adam Levy), a pedal steel guy (Drew Taubenfeld), percussionist (Daniel Sadownick), sax man (Ben Wendel) and some vocalists (Shayna Steele, Shoshana Bean).
What results is a sort of “Magical Mystery Tour” intro, leading to feel good soul sounds similar to the Jackson Five on “Are You Proud”, a Hall and Oats meeting Atari on “Toronto”, and tones of catchy 80s moods as on the pulsed “Angels Are” and “Fake Out” featuring the ladies at the mic. Soul synth grooves like Joe Jackson is stepping out on “LNSV” and “You Are #9” make you look for a cover of the B52s somewhere.