Like a bolt from the blue tossed by Zeus himself from Mount Olympus at us mortals below, quaking at his divine might, The Olympians’ self-titled debut album dropped 10 years ago and blew the minds of any listeners who happened to find themselves algorithmically served a neo-soul-tinged funk instrumental album from Daptone Records.
With a new album from the group released in February 2026, now is the perfect time to revisit this tremendous achievement from a collective led by keyboardist and vibraphonist Toby Pazner of Lee Fields & The Expressions and El Michels Affair (both also Daptone artists) and rounded out by many more denizens of the Daptone family.
Origins of The Olympians
After playing the Acropolis in Athens and swimming in the Aegean Sea, Toby Pazner had a dream that refused to stay a dream. A toga-clad figure told him to head back across the sea and build a “Temple of Sound,” a place where the tales of ancient Greece could be retold through music. He tried to brush it off at first. Then it came back night after night, each time louder, until it stopped feeling like a weird story and started feeling like a directive.
Back in New York City, Pazner committed fully. He started building that “Temple of Sound” from the ground up, chasing the best microphones, tape machines, and studio gear he could get his hands on. And because he was part of the Daptone family, he could do what most artists can’t: call in favors from an elite circle of musicians and actually have them show up. Over years of work, the album took shape as a dense, widescreen blend of strings, harp, vibes, guitar, and layered keyboards, all stitched together with blazing horns, until The Olympians was finally fully realized in spring 2016.
When it was done, Pazner brought the finished album to longtime friends and Daptone co-owners Gabriel Roth and Neal Sugarman, who immediately wanted to release it. The result is its own kind of time-travel: an “ancient Greece” dreamscape painted in lush cinematic arrangements, but anchored by the tough, punchy rhythm language that’s always been the label’s calling card, from the luminous harps that open “Sirens of Jupiter” to the forceful horn coda of “Sagittarius By Moonlight.”
That sound wasn’t an accident, and neither was the personnel. The record featured Aaron Johnson (Antibalas), trumpet standout Dave Guy (Tonight Show Band, The Dap-Kings), multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels (The Arcs, Lee Fields, El Michels Affair), bassist Nicholas Movshon (The Arcs, Lee Fields, El Michels Affair), drummer Homer Steinweiss (The Dap-Kings, The Arcs), arranger and trumpeter Michael Leonhart (Steely Dan musical director), saxophonist Neal Sugarman (The Dap-Kings, Sugarman 3), Evan Pazner (Lee Fields), and, at the center of it all, Toby Pazner’s own multi-instrumental and arranging wizardry steering the whole myth into focus.
Song Highlights: A Kiss from Aphrodite
Though no vocals are present on The Olympians, the melody lines (which almost always come courtesy of the horn section) are far stronger and more intriguing than what you might hear on the radio – across any genre. If that’s not a ringing endorsement of predominantly instrumental genres, I don’t know what is.
“Neptune” – A moody and mysterious melody is backed by a propulsive bassline with horns dominating proceedings. Very light guitar accents can be picked up through close listening, and the song would suffer greatly were these minor elements not present. A masterclass in arranging and mixing.
“Diana By My Side” – Vibraphone and piano doubled up, pizzicato strings, punchy horns and a sweet-as-honey melody line combine to provide one of the most romantic moments on the entire album that is extremely evocative of sunlit promenades in the shadow of the Mediterranean. A divine track that surprisingly uses the Roman name for the goddess of wilderness and the hunt, known in Greek mythology as Artemis.
“Sagittarius By Moonlight” – A gorgeous melody – arguably the album’s prettiest – closes out The Olympians. With a sparser arrangement – often with just staccato piano chords, light strings, a fluid, elegant bassline, tiny, flanged guitar motifs, and the horns in the lead – this is the perfect way to end an album stuffed with top-flight funk, as well as a fitting devotional for the Greek pantheon. This woozy-sounding track serves as a perfect contrast to the bracing and energetic album opener “Sirens of Jupiter.”
“Apollo’s Mood” – Oftentimes, “track threes” on albums represent the modus operandi of the album on which they are present. They are also often where the best song is placed (this is not a hard and fast rule, but you’d be surprised how true it is across the spectrum of popular music history). This is certainly the case – on both counts – for The Olympians, as that album’s third track is easily the best song on the album: the heavenly Hellenic ode “Apollo’s Mood.”
This is one of the most straightforward songs on the entire album, and it also features, by far, the most hummable melody within. Bass guitar takes center stage and locks in with a warm, inviting drum sound that cavorts betwixt the playful, ever-ascending horn melody, all ending with a delightful, cascading vibrato flourish.
While this song rewards close listening, it also would go down smoothly as background music for a beach day playlist, when the sun feels perfect on your skin and the beer tastes just a little bit better – all thanks to the dulcet (Dap)tones of The Olympians.
Olympic Timing: Fluke or Signal?
The seed behind the idea that birthed The Olympians was planted during the 2012 London Olympics, and the group’s first album also dropped in an Olympics year (2016). As you may know, the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics run February 6–22, 2026, and it, we get a new The Olympians album – their first in a decade.
Does this mean that we’ll get another The Olympians album in, say, six years for the next summer games? Or maybe another decennial release for the 2036 summer games? Perhaps we’ll only have to wait four years for a new Winter Olympics release from the band.
Either way, fans of this horn-driven funk instrumental outfit will surely be paying attention to the Olympics, or at least the years in which the games occur, to see if The Olympians are going to deliver a new album of top-flight instrumental melodic funk. Let’s hope so.
Header Photo Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
