Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent.

​Michael Leonhart is a weird afro-funk merchant, a psychedelic dreamer, a dusty Bollywood record found under a mysterious stack, a walking issue of Wax Poetics, a twisted funkateer ready to mesmerize New York with infectious, hand-markered grooves. His current outfit, Michael Leonhart & the Avramina 7, makes the type of awesome, acid-damaged retro-funk that labels like Stones Throw and Ubiquity churn out. But his musical resume is ridiculously diverse: Leonhart started off as the winner of very first Student Grammy Award for most outstanding high school musician in the US (presented to him by none other than Henry Mancini!), and became a session trumpeter on records by Yoko Ono, Mos Def, Steely Dan, Brian Eno, and James Brown (not to mention tons of records for the ever-funky Truth And Soul label). His debut album, Seahorse & The Storyteller (due April 20, Truth And Soul), is a totally spaced-out, funked-out concept album about " two mythical creatures who meet, fall in love and begin piecing together the mysteries of each others past." Banger "Scopolamine" is directly influenced by his love of heavy '60s and '70s African funk and features gorgeous splashes of mysterious reverb, Free Design harmonies, a note-perfect reproduction of the dirty-as-fuck drums people love to sample and--why not?--a talking syringe.

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