Following on from a solid two-year-run of releases, Berlinite Max Graef rounds of 2015 by embarking on his latest undertaking: The Max Graef Band. The project consists of five guys jamming together on the Dog LP, forthcoming on Graef’s own Money $ex imprint. This takes form as his second fuller-length release, after the unparalleled Rivers of the Red Planet album he presented on Tartelet last year.

Dog now sees Graef working in the realm of live instrumentation, but using much of the same musical inspiration found in his former, more digitally inclined productions. All eight tracks are imbued with a free-wheeling emphasis on jazz, funk and soul – uniting the work as a whole rather than singular-functioning songs. It was, therefore, a difficult task to single out a favourite. “Die Elektrische/Der Weisse Vogel Part II” earns its stripes as possibly the most wholehearted “jam” of the bunch. The funk dominates heavily, with the use of the Rhodes piano, Clav, live bass and plenty of bubbling “out-of-this-orbit” sound FX. Packed with floor-shaking energy from start to finish.

Dog drops on 14th December. Catch the pre-order here.