DORIAN GEIGER
Arts Writer

Take a pinch of ska, a funk-tastic dash of jazzy trumpets, reggae guitar chords and a well-seasoned portion of soulful hip-hop and you’ve got one of Saskatoon’s new and most vibrant local bands — none other than Sly Business.

“A ska-funk band in 2010?” one might ask. Don’t be tricked into thinking that ska music is a genre of bygone decades — Sly Business puts a new spin on hiphop, intertwining it with ska, funk and indie soul. And that’s the whole point, according to the very fitting name of the debut Sly Business album: 1976.

Set to drop 1976 in early April, Sly Business has a number of Saskatoon shows and tour dates booked across the west coast in April and May. Before hitting the road, Sly Business will jam out at Amigos on March 21.

For frontman Mark Ejack, Sly Business is a more hip-hop oriented endeavour and expansion of Ejack’s previous project, Jiminy. Those who have been to a Jiminy show around town know to expect a fun show at Amigos that guarantees to have more rug cut on the dance floor than a carpet factory.

However, to push his artistic outlook in a new, more serious direction, Ejack left Saskatoon for a summer by the breezy Pacific waters of British Columbia.

Ejack packed up and converted to the laid back west coast lifestyle of Victoria, B.C., over the summer of 2009. There, he started writing new songs for the foundations of Sly Business. Once achieving a state of permanent Zen by jumping off cliffs, surfing and doing other British Colombian outdoor activities, Ejack’s eyes were opened to a new way of life. His taste in music as an artist began to transform.

Pairing up with friends from Volcanoless in Canada, the Rebellion and other members of Jiminy, the guitarist and lyricist Ejack put together most of the pieces of the puzzle, which evolved into Sly Business.

Not long after returning to Saskatoon, Ejack embarked upon another westward journey in pursuit of musical ambitions — except this time it was Hollywood.

Making the two-week trip to Hollywood in February and diverting from the casual beach-side lifestyle of Victoria and the hem-haw winter season of Saskatoon was strictly business for Ejack. Setting the standard high for the new album had become a priority and hitting California to master and put the finishing touches on 1976 was a huge status boost for the band, lending Sly Business’s record more professional credibility.

Ejack went through Grundman Studios and producer Brian “Big Bass” Gardner in Hollywood to ensure maximum sound quality. The full vibrancy of 1976 shone through. And after forking over a few thousand dollars, Ejack was able to complete his vision for the sound of Sly Business.

“It was a positive experience. We worked in the same studio that Michael Jackson and George Harrison were in,” said Ejack about his 10-day stay recording in Hollywood.

“Just seeing all the platinum records everywhere and having the guy (Brian Gardner) that worked on all these albums work on my music was really exciting. He told me he really liked the music and how we fuse all these different kinds of music. So getting his perspective on it was really cool,” said Ejack.

It’s bands like Sly Business that prove genres such as ska, funk and hip-hop are not dead. In the era of mash-ups, mix tapes and sampling, such genres must adapt and meld with other sounds to stay fresh and generate appeal. In Sly Business’s case, they have created a genre like no other in Saskatoon.

Using a concept much like The Roots and embedding funky instrumentals in hip-hop verses, Sly Business’s emergence also serves as an indicator of the direction hip-hop and especially Canadian hip-hop is heading.

Cadence Weapon’s new instrumental hip-hop-electro project will likely provide a resurgence in the Edmonton hip-hop scene that Breaking Kayfabe managed to provide a few years back. And Regina’s rapping messiah Def 3 has recently put together OYE!, a flavourful Spanish band, rich with trumpets and bongo drums — the epitome of instrumental hip-hop and the solution to a watered down, mainstream hip-hop scene.

Sly Business play at Amigos March 21.