Denver-based six piece jam band Eminence Ensemble has spent the last several years cultivating a strong fervent audience through their forward-thinking musical ideas. A live Denver-staple who have played Mission Ballroom, Cervantes, The Fillmore, and The Ogden a combined 15+ times, the genre-blending outfit have crafted a sound that combines free-flowing, virtuosic jam sensibilities with complex song structures, euphoric vocal harmonies, and vibrant electronic elements - a stylistic blend that’s led to over 400 shows over their career, including sets at Summer Camp Music Festival, Electric Forest, Burning Man, Gem & Jam, Same Same But Different, Wavespell, and many others. The band is also coming off an impressive 2023, which included performances with Scott Page (Pink Floyd), as well as a sit-in with Umphrey’s McGee by Eminence Ensemble drummer Tanner Bardin.
Now, Eminence Ensemble is gearing towards their new album, Inside Looking Out, a full-length project that promises to add new wrinkles into the band’s formula while retaining the core traits that make the outfit such a distinct voice in the jam world. Inside Looking Out will be the band’s first LP with new members Dylan Gleit (vocals/guitar/production/mixing, following his stint as the Emmy-award winning audio engineer for Mr. Robot) and Will Snyder (keyboard/synth), who join the original players/childhood friends Justin Neely (guitar/vocals), Nick Baum (vocals/percussion), Zac Flynn (bass/synth), and Tanner Bardin (drums).
As a result, Inside Looking Out showcases the band’s typical instrumental mastery and unique, vocal-forward approach while elevating their sonic presentation to new levels of immersion and grandiosity.
Today, Eminence Ensemble release the LP’s lead single, “Flipside,” a playful, uplifting track that combines the band’s penchant for catchy hook writing with funky, intricate arrangements. Written as an ode to that all-too-familiar feeling of wishing you were somewhere else - only to realize the grass isn’t always greener - the track’s jovial, humanist tone is a call to live in the moment and appreciate your surroundings.
"Flipside” kicks off with psychedelic guitar licks that dive into the song’s infectious central groove. Soulful falsetto vocals then glide over the lush instrumental before transitioning into the heavenly pre-chorus - a cathartic vocal section with soaring melodies and smooth, layered background singing.
Next, the track drops into its indelible chorus, a section filled with a rhythmic vocal delivery singing the title refrain - “catch you on the flipside” - before introducing group harmonies over the bouncy, dance-fueled instrumental. The track then rounds out with an epic, extended organ solo that’ll have listeners swaying to its swirling composition.
Lively and produced with wondrous, immaculate precision, “Flipside” is an acute example of Eminence Ensemble’s bold creative imagination - and portends an LP filled to the brim with similarly lavish soundscapes.
Fans can catch the band play “Flipside” during their upcoming Colorado shows in Grand Junction and Durango.
Eminence Ensemble tour dates
1/12/24: Grand Junction, CO - Mesa Theater
1/13/24: Durango, CO - Animas City Theatre
