{"id":23025,"date":"2022-05-28T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23025"},"modified":"2022-05-23T11:01:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T15:01:32","slug":"ep-review-diplomats-of-solid-sound-the-live-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/28\/ep-review-diplomats-of-solid-sound-the-live-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"EP Review: Diplomats of Solid Sound \u2013 The Live EP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diplomats_live_ep.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-23026\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diplomats_live_ep.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diplomats_live_ep.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diplomats_live_ep-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/diplomats_live_ep-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a>This nine-person ensemble released a fine album, <i>A Higher Place<\/i>, in 2019. That was my first exposure to the Iowa group, but I soon discovered that they have been together more than two decades. So any suggestion that they\u2019re following on or bandwagon jumping is egregiously wrong. The group\u2019s latest release is a five-song collection, <i>The Live EP<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>The songs are drawn from the group\u2019s three most recent long-player. Here they\u2019re delivered live in the studio, with no overdubs, edits or post-production fiddling of any kind. That\u2019s admirable, of course, and very much in line with the aesthetic of an old-school soul outfit. It\u2019s worth noting, perhaps, that their \u201cconventional\u201d studio albums sound organic as well, so whatever sweetening or polishing those earlier tracks went through, it didn\u2019t take away from the real and authentic vibe of the music.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Live EP<\/i> completely avoids things like reverb; the dry, no-frills vibe presents the songs just as you might hear them should you had been lucky enough to gain access to the recording studio during their visit. The familiar melodic lines are delivered with skill and taste. The group exercises restraint on four of the cuts, only to tear the roof off the sucka with the closing number, \u201cJealous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The group\u2019s three-vocalist setup is effectively employed, with occasional solo turns. But for the most part, the singers \u2013 Sarah Cram, Katharine Rustow and Abbie Sawyer \u2013 function as a unit. Ably supported by \u201cthe gents\u201d on guitar, bass, drums, keys, tenor and bari sax \u2013 they showcase the Diplomats\u2019 range and strength.<\/p>\n<p>When it\u2019s all said and done, <i>The Live EP<\/i> doesn\u2019t really add much to listeners\u2019 understanding of (or appreciation for) this group, as these \u201clive\u201d versions aren\u2019t remarkably different than their \u201cstudio\u201d versions. But the Diplomats\u2019 commitment to their chosen style and their demonstrated ability to create compelling work makes any new release from them \u2013 even one covering well-trodden ground \u2013 very much welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This nine-person ensemble released a fine album, A Higher Place, in 2019. That was my first exposure to the Iowa group, but I soon discovered that they have been together [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,60,65,69],"tags":[3922],"class_list":["post-23025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-rb","category-review","category-soul","tag-diplomats-of-solid-sound","cat-49-id","cat-60-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23027,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23025\/revisions\/23027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}