Melbourne’s heaviest funk rhythm section The Putbacks return with "The Ways"

Melbourne’s heaviest funk rhythm section The Putbacks bring you a twisted and electric collaboration with the legendary Bilal on their new single “The Ways”. This dark, dirty, post-soul, post-jazz, mystery-cinema freakout dominated by screaming electric guitar and Bilal’s husky stream of consciousness lyrics is accompanied by an equally murky video and anticipates The Putbacks‘ self-titled debut album out in November. “The Ways” is produced by Paul Bender (Hiatus Kaiyote) and is a hard-hitting, abstract journey into an alternate reality where The Meters specialized in Sci-Fi soundtrack art and Dick Dale played guitar on Madlib records.

Bilal has been a household name amongst soul aficionados since he was an integral member of the Soulquarians collective – a movement that launched his career alongside those of Questlove, Erykah Badu and D’Angelo and whose influence is still strongly felt. Bilal is a mercurial and diverse artist, noted for his wide vocal range, his resistance to being typecast and his working across multiple genres, “The Ways” being a prime example. Bilal’s discography is studded with stellar collaborations including Kendrick Lamar, Common, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Guru, J Dilla, Robert Glasper and The Roots, amongst many others.

The Putbacks are a rhythm section. Drums, bass, guitar, keyboards and percussion. Stone cold pros, grizzled veterans of all the tours and all the studios. They take their cues from the great house bands of the 60s and 70s soul studios as film composers from David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin to Adrian Younge and contemporary instrumental groups like BADBADNOTGOOD, Khruangbin and El Michels Affair. Known for their instrumental 7inch funk cuts and their collaboration with Emma Donovan, the forthcoming LP marks their first album as a quintet.