By Mick Dillon and Scout Nicholson / The Jambar
Funk group Geo C and Tha Storm rolled onto the Youngstown music scene over 26 years ago, and singer-songwriter Geo Case said the band has no plans of slowing down.
Working with local musicians from northeastern Ohio has given the funk group an opportunity to expand its musical depth and collaborate with other musicians to bring Case’s vision to live audiences.
“There’s plenty of good musicians that we get to work with around here, that are in my band, and even ones that are, you know, in other bands,” Case said. “We try to surround ourselves with people that are open-minded.”
Throughout a seasoned career, the band has released four studio albums, one live album and one EP. Case said that the band has three albums coming out this year.
“You know, I write R&B, funk a lot of times, and I’m a tenor, so the Prince [resemblance] is inescapable … Our sound, it’s a little bit all over the board,” Case said.
Case can usually be found in his record store, Geo’s Music, located in downtown Youngstown. His upcoming album is engineered by local filmmaker and musician Les Nolan, in the store’s back studio.
The duo is currently working on finishing Geo C and Tha Storm’s latest album, “A Higher State of Tranquility,” and The Jambar received exclusive access to an unfinished version of the upcoming release.
In a total of 12 tracks, the group’s unreleased project personifies the sonic groove that Case has found himself in since the band’s inception.
Kicking off with “Let’s Roll,” the album quickly utilizes all eight pieces of the band Case has assembled, with heavy use of horns and the talkbox.
This sound lingers throughout the project, putting listeners in a funky, upbeat mood, with tracks, such as, “It’s Not Alright,” “The Getback” and “Who (Is Going To Tell You What You Can, Or Cannot Do)?”
The album slows down and takes a soulful, R&B turn with track six, titled “Taste of You.” The brief R&B interlude was succeeded by a reggaeton-adjacent soul mix to pick up where track five left off.
Later on, track eight takes an unexpected turn with an electronic-dance vibe. The lyrics evoke a buoyant mood, transporting the listeners to a 1970s disco.
The latter half of the album returns to the soulful, sensual “Time,” which calls the audience to close their eyes and sway to rhythmic melodies.
Case’s political nature is shown through his closing tracks, with track 11 highlighting “The Sound of War,” an unconventional, instrumental experience featuring loud sirens, gun shots and screams of terror.
Case isn’t shy about saying what he believes with the outro track, “Peace in the Middle East.” Case shares his views through the repetitive lyrics of “Can’t we learn to live together” and “We got to have peace in the Middle East.”
Human nature is the subject at the forefront of the group’s songs, and Case’s beliefs of peace and love are reflected through his highly technical funk sound.
“All the different groups actually then become one group of people that can just come together, hopefully over art and music in a way that isn’t political, that is just right instead of wrong,” Case said.
Most of its catalogue composed of experimental funk songs, the unreleased sounds of Geo C and Tha Storm continue to serve as a time capsule from the 1970s.
The band’s live lineup, Soul Revival, is expected to play several shows in the Mahoning Valley, including stops at Westside Bowl on April 19 and The Varsity Club on April 26. Fans can expect “A Higher State of Tranquility” to be released in the coming weeks.