Sankofa

Amaro Freitas - Baquaqua

BBE Music is thrilled to announce the release of Modern Love, a diverse compendium of specially commissioned cover versions of rarities and classics in tribute to David Bowie.

Featuring an array of artists such as Jeff Parker, We Are KING, Meshell Ndegeocello, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, Matthew Tavares, Nia and more, Modern Love seeks to champion Bowie’s lesser-known connection to soul, R&B, jazz, funk, and gospel. The prominent jazz influences throughout Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, were a key inspiration for curating this collection of reimagined Bowie songs with these artists. The resulting album is an eclectic tribute featuring a group of artists who not only fit together creatively, but who, like Bowie, straddle different worlds musically, with soul and jazz at their core.

Modern Love offers a fresh look at Bowie’s trailblazing career, aiming to highlight the often overlooked relationship between his back catalogue and musical genres traditionally pioneered by artists of color. The project was curated by music executive and DJ Drew McFadden, alongside BBE Music founder Peter Adarkwah. “I felt that the connection between Bowie and R&B, jazz, funk, gospel and all things soulful, had never really been explored before — at least not so much in covers, which tend to lean more towards rock and pop,” says McFadden. “Certainly, there’s been plenty of Bowie covers over the years, but none that have really tapped into what seems to have been a big part of his core musical
style and direction.”

Modern Love is an interactive sonic map. Here, seventeen artists make their way into the varied regions of his sundry catalog and circle back with seventeen unique re-imaginings of both his cornerstone and lesser-known tracks. Some, in atmosphere, feel like a sly alternate take from original sessions (Khruangbin’s ethereal, funk infused version of “Right” from Young Americans); others nod at the source, then wink before diving into the deep waters of another musical stratosphere (Sessa’s sexy Tropicalia-drenched “Panic in Detroit” from Aladdin Sane). Still others take tunes down to the studs and then re-arrange the moody interiors: Meshell Ndegeocello’s pensive “Fantastic Voyage” from Lodger and Tavares’ clever take on “Heroes” which is restructured into a kinetic hardbop-esque backdrop, fronted by ice-cool, held-back vocals. The bullseye these artists aim for is Bowie’s fearlessness. “Fame was an incredible bluff that worked,” he once reflected. “Very flattering. I’ll do anything until I fail. And when I succeed I quit too.”

Modern Love packs us off on a journey that balances on risk’s sharp blade. Track-to-track, it explores what happens when a musician throws out notions of should and safe and stretches beyond the known. These artists use Bowie both as a guide and a prism: A way of being and seeing. Their offerings, widely divergent, explore the inheritance from an artist who freed himself from labels, genres and, consequently, pigeonholes. While he was at it, he decimated fixed notions about territory (or terra) itself; boundaries hemmed-in his creative process, but his essence remained free to roam. He may have vanished in earthly form, yet, as he also promised in the lyrics of “Modern Love,” But I never wave bye-bye . . .” This compilation assures us that his spirit swirls around us. His force is alive to all of us and, here, it is summoned with an incantation that celebrates possibility.

Khruangbin - Right

Kabhi

Kabhi (feat. Piya Malik)

Education & Recreation

A1 Bakery Pledge of Allegiance

Friendship EP

Pash Rash

5.12.24

The In the Moment Remix Tape reworks the already-chopped, altered, and looped spontaneous compositions of Makaya McCraven's 2xLP In the Moment. Crossing the boundaries of improvisation, composition and sampling, nine producer/beat makers from around the globe reworked the tracks into new beats and creations of repurposed audio. Makaya then remixed their remixes into two continuous mixtape sides, blending them with beats of his own, resampling the samplers of his original sliced and sampled spontaneous compositions.
credits
releases 22 September 2015 

Produced by Makaya McCraven 
w/Beat Makers Amin Payne, Krush Love, Maker, Malik Abdul Rahmaan, Moongriffin, Peppin, Quiet Dawn, Radius and Swarvy.
Mastered by David Allen 
Curated by Scott McNiece and Alejandro Ayala 
Cover Art by Jordan Martins 
Design by Craig Hansen



Interstellar

Vocals and samples Emma Garnett
Backing vocals Emma Garnett and Sallay Garnett
Guitar Patrick Groenland
Keys and synth Johnny Taylor
Bass Niall Hughes and Ken McCabe
Drum kit Dennis Cassidy
Percussion Emma Garnett, Patrick Groenland and Paul Kenny
Mixed by Ken McCabe
Mastered by Fergal Davis
Artwork Louise Gaffney and Emma Garnett

Like No Other

"Lost in the Sauce" is the second single from King Garbage's debut LP, Make It Sweat, out 9/22 on Styles Upon Styles. Kicking off the album with a bittersweet vibe, laid-back yet celebratory with a hangdog's sense of perseverance, the track is a lover's inebriated lament for one last jam before heading home and starting it all over again.

King Garbage’s Make It Sweat LP will be available on September 22, 2017 from Styles Upon Styles.

Learn More: bit.ly/SUS025-KG

King Garbage – Lost In The Sauce (SUS025)

Yussef Dayes x Alfa Mist (feat. Mansur Brown) - Love Is The Message

VWETO II

Brokenfolks

In a new era of genre-bending music, Makaya McCraven pushes the boundaries of sound and rhythm to create categories of his own. Called “a sound visionary” who is “not your everyday jazz drummer”, McCraven is a beat scientist. Whether behind the drums or in the lab, mixmaster Makaya McCraven moves between genres at lightning speed.

Interstellar

Makaya McCraven

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