FUSE
FUSE began in 2001 as a project to bring together rock and hip hop in the vibrant New Brunswick underground music scene that thrives around Rutgers University (NJ). With an evolving lineup of experienced musicians, the band built a growing and devoted fan base, played some two hundred shows in the Tri-State area and collaborated with dozens of up-and-coming performers to develop the live sound of “soul rock”, fusing urban beats, rock riffs, funky rhythms, soul singing and original street rhymes. FUSE emerged as the core of a growing and diverse musical tribe -part P-Funk and part Wu-Tang Clan- known as the Soul Rebels. The band headlined at the Planet Hip Hop 3 festival at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (featured in the Star Ledger), the Manhattan Black Beats festival run by legendary promoter Bob Holman (featured in the Village Voice) and the Hub City Revival concert in New Brunswick (featured in the Home News Tribune).
With X on guitar, Toast on bass, Mr. Pocket on drums, Soul Qlock on the mic & MPC, and Jack Leary ..s, the band plays at its best at packed live shows in venues big and small from New York to Philly (main stage at Knitting Factory, GrapeStreet, Lion’s Den, Galapagos, Five Spot, etc.). FUSE collaborates and shares the stage with a growing talent pool of MCs, DJs and singers including Silent Knight (featured on Loud.com), Shon Penn (Making the Band 4), Jah, St. Joe Louis (aka Prizm), Damon St. Alborne, Reason Beings, Medinah Starr, M Josephine and DJ Iris, Jamilah Imahn, Marie Kanu, Captin Planit, and DJ INGS.
With so many collaborators and diverse musical influences (The Roots, James Brown, The Police, KRS-1, Black Sabbath, Tribe Called Quest, Soundgarden, Charles Mingus, Aretha Franklin, The Meters, but also Kashmere Stage Band, Kyuss, Alice Donut, …) FUSE developed a unique, dynamic music-writing process: The band records original tracks at its very own Compound Studios and sends them out to a fusiverse of promising MCs, DJs and singers who remix and add their own flavor to them. FUSE practices the remixed tracks live in the studio until they gel into fusic – the coherent new sound of soul rock that can be sampled on FUSE’s first full-length CD “Nine Cuts”. FUSE is currently at work on an ambitious new CD project that will fully feature its maturing sound and numerous new collaborators.
Contact: management@fuseplanet.com