Very often, a band, a musical collective, or a cast of thousands revolves around a vision of a single artist, with others involved serving or adding to that vision.
That seems to be the case with American Cream Band (ACB), formed by Twin Cities musician Nathan Nelson some 10 years ago, as a vehicle for his krautrock/spiritual jazz/ whatever else musical excursions.
Nelson would set a backbone theme, an idea, and he and the revolving cast of musicians would use that as a starting point to see where it takes them.
This concept is an open book, which can get closed very quickly if you don’t know what you are doing, but judging by Presents, ACB’s latest release, Nelson and 13 other musicians and vocalists working here have a clear idea where they started and where they are going, coming up with some sort of a combination of ‘kosmiche’ explorations, mutant disco (akin to Jame Chance) with touches of spiritual jazz and Gang of Four no less.
Of course, with such a combination you are open to creating a complete mess, but Nelson and his crew seem to know exactly what they are doing here, creating something like an open-ended mutant ‘kosmiche’ disco. The one that works.
