Bones & Beeker: an unlikely combination

What do you get when you combine indie folk and hip hop? Apparently, the answer is Bones & Beeker. The Minneapolis-based pair of Anthony Newes (of the indie folk group Villa) and Brendan Kelly (known as BK-One and former DJ for Brother Ali) adopted this alliterative moniker with the November 2015 release of their self-titled debut album. "Heartbroken in Love," the fourth track of the 14-track opus, exhibits Bones & Beeker's unconventional brand of serene funk that is making major waves in the alternative music world. A steady dose of meandering bass lines and a fusion of hip hop and rock beats provide a background for the group's heavy use of mallet percussion that is scattered liberally throughout the track. Newes' falsetto voice, one that could easily get him confused for a member of the Bee Gees, is at times unintelligible, but effective nonetheless because his voice acts more as a complementary instrument rather than a vehicle to deliver lyrical content.

"Heartbroken in Love," like many other songs on the album, invokes a sense of mysterious intrigue as one gets a feeling of watching a scene unfold from an outside perspective rather than being immersed the scene itself. Parabolic trickles of guitar and throbbing vibraphone chords punctuate the otherwise stable flow of Bones & Beeker's bread and butter: relaxed, sensuous grooves. While the two veteran artists' talents are already well established and recognized, Bones & Beeker is just getting started. Already champions and pioneers in the creative use of instruments, Bones & Beeker will undoubtedly continue to challenge the status quo and help bring ingenuity back the world of music, where manufactured, dumbed-down, oversimplified rhythms and lyrics are all too common.