The Shakers - White Leather
- Written by Marky Edison
‘White Leather’ is the follow-up to ‘Guess Who’, which we featured previously and both songs are taken from The Shakers' second EP, Banana Tsunami. It feels anachronistic releasing this at Halloween: The Shakers’ sound is that of pure summer. The languidly casual funk guitars that open the track echo Nile Rodgers’ best-known licks. The three guitars overlap but never get under each other’s feet. The gentle, finger-clicking beat is complemented by the P-Funk rhythm section while Jack Hawkins’ breezy, southern voice lays on the lyrical hooks.
As well as their obvious debt to George Clinton and Sly Stone, you can hear influences from closer to home. There’s a John Squire feel to the guitars as well as their fellow Londoners, The Rolling Stones. Maybe a touch of The Fat Whites too, although the attitudes of the music are poles apart.
The Banana Tsunami title track was released as a single earlier this year and you might expect the quality to drop off by the third single from the EP but The Shakers have held the standard high with this song. The production is raw and unvarnished. A bigger production budget might bring a fatter sound, and some welcome low end to the bass guitar and drums, but the live feel of ‘White Leather’ is part of its charm. We’ll dust this off for festival season 2018.