“It was soulful & it made my body do the most amazing things.”
The folks at Little Boom Music have been covering The Sketches Project in its various incarnations – the online video process, the EP releases, and now the Sketches So Far live show in Melbourne. Read what they had to say right here.
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Review:
The Ray Mann Three & Sugarcraft @ The Toff 1 March 2012
Saturday, 17 March 2012 By Scott
(Excerpt only – read the full review here)
Ray’s silhouette presented itself on the back of stage and as the beats dropped Ray appeared & opened with the touching Move. After this solo introduction Russ and Joel joined the stage to join Ray and take it up a notch and there we had it folks, the complete Ray Mann Three!
By this time the crowd had started to build which always fascinates me as I love how the energy and chatter fills a space however for Ray the audience was just a little bit too far away so Ray stopped singing & spoke to us & he asked the whole entire crowd to move closer to the stage & assured us that if we did, we would be rewarded by the music.
The Ray Mann Three delivered on their promise as the music was tight & I kid you not when I say that I haven’t seen a band this solid since seeing the JB’s (James Brown’s band)!
The group moved around their back catalogue & in between we heard songs from the latest releases which included Show Ya, Who’s Loving You & Babylon.
Long break instrumentals were also key to the night & in these moments which included Feels So GoodRay said he wanted to just go with it as he hadn’t seen the guys in a year & he just wanted to hang out with them. Of course being the polite young chap that he is we were asked if we would mind first. There were no objections and what a session!!
These instrumental breaks were arranged so well & the vocals were repeated as if they were being run through a sampler. Then after a bit of improve it was back into full songs, Impressive!
Another fine moment was Soapbox’s Physch rock guitar which bellowed throughout The Toff & made the crowd turn into a scene direct from a 1960’s club party.
Through Ray’s interludes we got to know the group & also the Sketches project. I quite liked the thoughts behind the project as Ray explained that the sketches were his form of postcards (what a great concept).
The overall aesthetic to the show proved that The Ray Mann Three are seasoned musicians. The postcard aspect was cleverly displayed on visuals and colour wise the groups get up blended perfectly.
Their sound was purely seductive, it was soulful & it made my body do the most amazing things. Big cheers to both bands for the music & also to the polite folk at The Toff. It was a great night!