Illusions

Twenty years after forming in Tommy Brenneck’s Bushwick apartment, Menahan Street Band returns with Illusions, their fourth full-length album, on Brenneck’s Diamond West Records.

Tommy Brenneck, Dave Guy, Nick Movshon, Leon Michels and Homer Steinweiss have each pursued a wide range of projects in the intervening years, from The Roots and The Budos Band to El Michels Affair, solo recordings and production work. Reunited, they found an energy Brenneck says felt like “the first time”.

Recorded quickly and instinctively, Illusions blends Menahan’s signature guitar, horns and drums with arrangements by Brazilian legend Arthur Verocai. The result is an instrumental travelogue that lets the mind wander, with original artwork by Ariana Papademetropoulos complementing the album’s otherworldly collection of music.

Side A

1. Palace of Illusions
2. Aurora Was Her Name
3. Gentleman’s Getaway
4. El-Onta’s Dance
5. Sound of Distant Thunder

Side B

6. The Emerald Courtyard
7. Crystal Crown
8. Another Magic Morning
9. There Before The Sun
10. City After City