The Motet holds an album release party at Asheville Music Hall, April 18

From a press release:

The Motet holds an album release party at Asheville Music Hall, April 18

The Motet at Asheville Music Hall with Kung Fu
April 18, 2014
Doors: 9pm
21+
$12 ADV / $15 DOS

After numerous sold-out shows across the nation in 2013 from The Fillmore Auditorium in Denver to the Wonder Ballroom in Portland, as well as electrifying festival plays at Wakarusa, Catskill Chill, Oregon County Fair and Arise Music Festival, The Motet have dove head-first into 2014. To kick off the year, The Motet dropped their first album in four years on January 25th, celebrating its release with a very special performance at The Fillmore in Denver. In February, The Motet joined The String Cheese Incident in the Mayan Riviera at the International Incident and look forward to a year of bringing the funk to venues and festivals across the U.S.

The Motet is a world-class ensemble who whip audiences into a whirlwind using complex layers of rhythm, melody and soul. These rhythms are spontaneous and textured and the beats are hard driving. The band uses this energy to create a rapport between the audience and themselves that is rarely seen in today’s world of manufactured rock. Live, The Motet consecrate the ground on which dance music meets free-form improvisation.

The Motet have refined their sound and vision into a dynamic and expressive force and have come together as an astonishingly talented cast of musicians. The group has become the strongest most cohesive incarnation of the band with a powerhouse line-up. With roots in funk, afrobeat, disco, jazz, and soul, The Motet keeps their audiences in a dancing frenzy by layering rhythms into a style that is uniquely their own. In an age where EDM towers over the dance music scene, The Motet has proven time and again that they can rock a dance party with a beautiful blend of live instrumentation and electronics.

With the release of their 7th album, The Motet once again showcase their commitment to pushing the sonic envelope, while remaining dedicated to the musical traditions that have defined their sound. The new album, which is self-titled, boldly states that this is the band The Motet has strived to become. The whole has become greater than the sum of it’s parts with each member of the band contributing to the writing and arranging of the songs, telling a unified story through syncopated rhythms and melodies. The band has also decided to take an analog approach in the making of the album by using tape, tubes and transistors. This gives the music a warm, rich, and organic tone with the crunch and bite of a classic 70’s funk record.

The Motet might be most well known for their consistently sold-out Halloween shows in which the band dons “musical costumes”, playing the catalogs of funk greats like Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament and Prince. In doing so, they have been able to internalize many effective musical concepts of these past masters. One lesson that The Motet have applied to their latest album is the power of great song-writing. As Watts told Boulder Weekly, “We realized how effective a great song is on a crowd. Instead of just the energetics we’re used to bringing, with improvising, soloing and extended arrangements, we really decided to focus on tunes, because we understand how powerful a great song is.”

Through collaborative song writing, the band’s focus is to deliver tight, technical and catchy tunes while still leaving space where anything can happen live. With an influence of heavy-horned funk countered by a textural blanket of rhythm, their new arsenal of songs showcase the talents of one of the strongest cast of players the band has ever assembled. Keyboardist Joey Porter, bassist Garrett Sayers, and guitarist Ryan Jalbert lay down undeniable grooves under the coursing melodies of vocalist Jans Ingber and horn players Matt Pitts and Gabe Mervine.  In pure Motet fashion, the ever-driving beats of drummer Dave Watts pushes the music through sonic peaks and valleys which tantalize and invigorates listeners. If you’ve loved The Motet for years or are just tuning in, listen up, you haven’t heard The Motet like this and you won’t be disappointed.

Members:
Dave Watts (drums)
Joey Porter (keys)
Garrett Sayers (bass)
Ryan Jalbert (guitar)
Gabe Mervine (trumpet)
Matt Pitts (tenor sax)
Jans Ingber (vocalist)