Auracle - 1979 - City Slickers

Auracle

1979

City Slickers

01. Little City Slickers 4:08
02. Tied Shoes 5:13
03. Honey 5:07
04. Bombs Away Ballet 5:01
05. City Of Penetrating Light 4:39
06. Rotary Andy's Raggedy 5:23
07. Sambanana 5:48

Steve Kujala: saxophone, flute
Rick Braun: trumpet
Steven Rehbein: vibraphone, percussion, mallet, marimba
Bill Staebell: bass
Ron Wagner: drums
Biff Hannon : keyboards
Lee Ritenour : guitar
Tim May: guitar
Donna Delory: vocals
Stacy Jo Clinger: vocals
Gloria Goldsmith: vocals
Steve Johnson: horn
Gloria O'Brien: vocals
Stacey O'Brien: vocals
Robert Payne: horn
Jeff Tkazyik: horn
Afreeka Trees: vocals

Auracle's second and final LP is a fairly average affair with one great cut.

City Slickers sounds like a crate-digger's record: there are moments here and there that could quite easily be lifted and used to better effect, but the album as a whole is fairly plain. The sound here is a sort of slightly funky jazz fusion that feels very smooth and professional, which means it doesn't have much in the way of personality. The album is instrumental aside from backing vocals on "Little City Slickers" and "Rotary Andy's Raggedy"

The one standout here is the aforementioned "Rotary Andy's Raggedy", which is the only genuinely funky cut here – the rest tend to be too soft to be classed as funk. It's got some wonderful horns and a great funk guitar scratching throughout, and it just feels so much more alive than the rest of the tracks here. Everything else seems to be okay songwriting extended out by okay soloing and instrumental interplay. The one noticeably bad cut is the opener "Little City Slickers" which, with the childlike backing vocals, sounds ridiculous and even somewhat twee – quite an unsettling description for a jazz fusion song.

Apart from the moments that could and should be lifted and re-used (which are scattered throughout all the tracks) there is not a great deal of interest here. Too much of this album doesn't have much of any distinguishing features, and it doesn't seem like any of the players were really that interested in this – it's all too clean and covered in the dull sheen of unengaged professionalism.

Overall, this is not an especially great listening experience, although it is still quite passable and is a competent record. City Slickers probably won't appeal to anyone beyond dedicated jazz fusion listeners and DJs and producers searching for samples.