The Menahan Street Band is a collaboration of musicians from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (Dave Guy, Homer Steinweiss, Fernando Velez, Bosco Mann), El Michels Affair (Leon Michels, Toby Pazner), Antibalas (Nick Movshon, Aaron Johnson) and the Budos Band (Mike Deller, Daniel Fodder), brought together by musician/producer Thomas Brenneck (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Amy Winehouse) to record hits in the bedroom of his Menahan St. apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. With influences reaching beyond the funk/soul/afrobeat architecture of their other projects into the more ethereal realms of Curtis Mayfield and Mulatu Astatke, the Menahan Street Band creates a unique new instrumental soul sound that is as raw as it is lush. Their debut album, Make the Road by Walking will be released on Dunham Records, Brenneck’s new imprint of Daptone Records, a joint venture devoted to bringing the Menahan Street sound from Brenneck’s bedroom out into the world. The album is marked by eerily quirky arrangements, featuring vibes, horns, piano, organ, percussion and even a strange bling sound that Brenneck creates by tuning and plucking the strings of his guitar on the wrong side of the bridge. However, it is not the textures themselves that make the new sound of Menahan Street so exciting, but rather the way the sounds are incorporated into the heavy rhythms and bold melodies of the compositions.

Beatspoke is organic soul and gritty truth. Sub-bass lines and unpredictable beats, melodies and lyrics tell of personal trials, growth and consciousness in world that is in dire need of change. DJ Vadim describes it as ¨hard beats, singing, poetry, synth b lines, like a down tempo Bugz in the Attic vs. Spacek vs. guys in Detroit like Wajeed and J Dilla..
The project began in 2003 when Sarah Gessler (USA) moved to Barcelona and met native producer Josh Fontan (SP) through joining the underground music scene. Since then they have been performing in festivals and clubs in Europe and the USA playing alongside artists such as Bonobo, Zero DB, Prefuse 73, Bugz in the Attic, Elliot Lipp, Rich Medina, Foreign Beggars, Al-Haca and DJ2D2 amongst others.
Josh also forms part of the Spanish Hip Hop duo Debilorithmicos (Pulpa) and is currently working with RQM (Al-Haca) on his live solo project. Sarah also works with various artists but is most recently collaborating with DJ Vadim on his new album.
Their debut album "No Rush"will be released in November 2008