People Get Ready

Another recent EP release is Zelda Maria, put out earlier this month by the Brooklyn band People Get Ready (there is also evidently a band going by the very same name from the Netherlands, but I do not know much about it), and though – to be frank – the record seems to me to be a bit thin, musically speaking, with its appearance it’s now as good a time as any to lend an ear to the band’s first LP, which was issued late last year, especially since two of its songs were already included in one of the Soundcloud playlists a few months ago, “Uncanny,” replete with some quite catchy arrangements, and “Windy Cindy,” a sort of homage to the artist Cindy Sherman.

The band, comprising the drummer Luke Fasano, the keyboardist Jen Goma, the singer and guitarist Steven Reker, and the bassist James Rickman, came together a few years ago in the interstices of music and dance for which a New York institution such as The Kitchen provides an arena; and in their live performances, judging from some of the information available about them on the Internet, they often aim to be not only a band but something like a dance troupe as well.

It is not so surprising, then, that for its part the music would be imbued with an especial degree of kinetic activity, the arrangements and even (albeit less noticeably) the vocals frequently bouncing martially-⁠acrobatically; the leaps taken are particularly daring in two of the tracks from the band’s eponymous LP, “New June” and “Three Strangers” – and each time they land on their feet.

With the new EP released, where will this ensemble go next?