Cherrywine

Ishmael Butler aka Butterfly was the creative force behind Digable Planets in the mid-’90s, the group who disappeared after dropping the stridently political manifesto Blowout Comb. His new Cherrywine project finds him trading the heavy jazz influence of the Planets for psychedelic funk band workouts, but unfortunately the transition does not really produce anything memorable. Butler aka Cherrywine’s voice is as distinctive as ever, slinging poetry and random thoughts, but there’s not much else that stands out. Some of the problem appears to be that Cherrywine seems to still be working out the strengths and weaknesses of his new outfit and the tracks collected as a result sound like a collection of half-baked ideas that while they can start out as interesting excursions they ultimately run out of steam very quickly. Given the obviously esoteric approach, more time taken on this project could have translated into something worthwhile, on Bright Black this potential remains unfulfilled.