Chris Bottomley

Bottomley has been strutting his bottom-heavy bass around the country since his stint with Toronto's Tulpa in the 1980s. Knotty Bits is his third solo album and once you hear the first track ("Belize City Bakin'") you'll wonder why it's not called Natty Bits, what with all that sweet and dandy reggae. Knotty Bits has as many grooves as Stevie Wonder's record collection and with Richard Underhill and Bryden Baird adding horns and producer Jono Grant summoning esoteric spirits with his many keyboards and samples the brand of throw-caution-to-the-wind funk and measured electronica found here is a heady trip indeed. "Brazilian Thunder Throb" and "African Head Dub" hint at the rhythmic diversity and "Spider Woman" is the sonic equivalent of how sexy that super girl's got to be. A few weaker numbers pop up, like "Floating & Drifting" with its sampled ocean wave meditation jazz feel, but once the tide goes out the band starts to boogie again.