RECORDINGS Lettuce Elevate On Elevate, the funk band Lettuce continues to evolve, treading into trap, psychedelic dub, Latin rock, ’80s synth- wave, Thai and Bay Area funk, and Texas blues, always fueled mightily by the creative syncopations of drummer ADAM DEITCH. Here we check out the album and chat with the drummer about it. Adam Deitch makes the simplest things mean a lot. On “Trapezoid,” the opening track of Lettuce’s latest long player, he locks in with the subterranean tones of bassist Erick Coomes, stepping it up underneath Benny Bloom’s trumpet solo. “Royal Highness” is funk fit for a king, and Deitch’s open hat on the downbeats gives the tune a nice push. The expected nods to J Dilla are present in the groove of “Purple Cabbage” and flammed backbeats of “Gang Ten.” Elsewhere, Deitch goes Garibaldi on their pumped-up cover of Tears for Fears’“Everybody Wants to Rule the World,”“Shmink […]

November 2019 Issue