Troy Kingi & The Room Service – Time Wasters: Soundtrack to Current Day Meanderings (AAA)
Troy Kingi serves up number seven in his 10-10-10 series. The genre this time? He calls it “ambient instrument vibe”.
Those who manage to keep up with the always-busy Mr. Kingi know the 10-10-10 series his Troy’s ambitious musical project in which he plans to produce 10 albums in 10 years in 10 genres. The previous album in the series, last year’s Year of the Ratbags and Their Musty Theme Songs found Troy exploring the 1980s…not one of my favourite eras…and so it turned out to be my least favourite in the series so far.
Hearing that this next album was all instrumental and “ambient” set my expectations even lower. Perhaps Troy was finally running out of steam? Is Time Wasters really that, a placeholder until Troy builds up more ace material for the final run of the series?
In a word…no.
Album opener, Bastard opens at a leisurely pace, but Marika Hodgson’s hypnotic bass line draws the listener in and the slinky guitar line has just the right amount of twang before we hear the jazzy electric piano of Forrest Thorpe.
This time around, Troy’s band is called The Room Service and in addition to Hodgson and Thorpe, they include Kingi regulars Guy Harrison (keys/trumpet), Treye Liu (drums), Thabani Gapara (sax) and all-rounder Greg Haver.
Second track, Fantasy League proves what a tight band they are. The upbeat, funky track really cooks, especially when the horns kick in.
Fitting with the title Time Wasters, several of these instrumental have titles associated with gaming. There is Sudoku, Rubix, Minesweeper and Chess.
Then there is Presidents And Assholes…very funky and an album highlight along with the easy-going Sequence with its Floydian guitar work. Way to bend those strings!
And if you check out the bonus track, Krispy Kreme, you’ll hear Troy’s 9-year-old daughter Āio prepping us for what looks to be a Kingi family franchise with many good years ahead of it.
Meanwhile Time Wasters is anything but. I’m really looking forward to hearing these tunes live. Now, bring on #8…no pressure Troy!
Marty Duda
