Matt Wilde - Inner Peace (feat. Natty Reeves)

In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Ze Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpção to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo’s Teodoro Sampaio Street. The trio had already been playing together in Brazilian polymath Hermeto Pascoal’s band, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto’s direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) realised their own potential.

With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of the dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally beautiful music which was wildly free and expressive - in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground.

Recorded in just two days at Sao Paulo’s Vice-Versa Studios, Starting Point was to mark the inception of one of Brazil’s most daring instrumental groups. But with a record so radically ahead of its time, Grupo Um struggled to find a label willing to release their debut and Lelo Nazario kept the tapes safe in his archives, which is where they sat for almost half a century…

Finally, this mesmerising piece of history is here, and it was only the beginning…

Grupo Um - Suite Orquidea Negra

BUY - https://sair.bandcamp.com/album/visions-ep

SaiR - What Does It Say About You

Laguna Seca - Richard Behrke

Este Color Mi Color - Sociedad Organizada En Sonido

This EP is a collection of instrumental beats I’ve created over the past few months. Drawing inspiration from the likes of MF DOOM, Q-Tip, Lord Finesse, DJ Premier, RZA, Large Professor, etc.

Strange Sadness

No One's Home

The Gradients Project - Hue EP out 3/25 on Unspeakable Records

Find out more: 
www.thegradients.com
www.unspeakable-records.com

The Gradients project was created to blend different creative platforms. Our philosophy is that nothing in life is black or white, but a gradient. We explore this concept through various intersections and collaborations between mediums including (not limited to) visual art, design, dance, film, music, architecture, food, computer science, and more.

The most recent Gradients Project that NY-based artist Kathy Lee (aka Yaeji) spearheaded has been the Gradients Mix series--a collection of 30 minute mixes that aurally translate a gradient of 2 colors. She has also been hosting Live Gradients shows in New York where each musical performer is assigned a color to interpret through their set.

"'Hue' was an audio-visual study for me. When I first decided to challenge myself and make multiple tracks that could sit under one theme to be an EP or album, I was stuck with the preconceived idea that it has to hold one consistent sound. That very quickly became limiting for me, so I decided to think of the songs as colors instead, flowing from one to the other like a gradient, to inspire my production. That is why my tracks are each named a color and they all connect to become one, long gradient."

The Gradients Project - Pink

Original Music composed by Daniel Casimir

4. Cable St.

Beautiful instrumental song by Howard Maple. Compilation out 17th of March!

Howard Maple - Soul Music

When The Expansions self released their first single in 2013, the laid-back jazz funk of Lavender, it quickly gained strong support from soul and rare-groove aficionados including Kenny Dope, Dom Servini, Patrick Forge and Andy Smith. A run of shows followed and before long, when someone was asking if there was a soul-jazz band around to play with, “The Expansions” was the answer. 

Although this popularity meant a hiatus in releasing music, the band have been constantly busy, playing around Europe with legendary British-Ghanaian soul singer, Andrew Ashong and the exceptional, upcoming talent Connie Constance. 

There has also been a breakout project from drummer Jonny Drop - the album Sub Plot gained massive support and love from BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne. While keys-man Dave Koor has been busy playing shows with Gilles Peterson favourite Hector Plimmer, Shaun Escoffery, and Ego Ella May, improvising with Yussef Dayes (Yussef Kamaal) and Nubya Garcia, releasing music as Deoke and collaborating with label-mate Scrimshire on their Modified Man exploration. 

But always, The Expansions has remained a central focus and the true home of these four jazz and soul lovers, with occasional trips out to the country to form ideas and practice new music for the eventual album. 

Murmuration, recorded over three days at Big Noise in Southend, is constructed of single takes, with minimal overdubs, as the band attempt to capture the feeling and energy they create live. 

Debut single Breakthrough introduced the insanely catchy but deeply soulful blend of synths and groove, but here on the album that is explored to the fullest with longer breakdowns and more expansive, experimental solos. Pocket 5 displays the, possibly unexpected, influences of broken beat and almost combative rhythm playing – particularly in the complex guitar and keys breakdown where Koor and O’Keefe layer conflicting time signatures and battle to ride it out to the heavy drum return. 

Cannonball brings warm mellowness that delicately evolves through beats, touching on bossas alongside their fundamental hip-hop sensibilities. But even here there is a raucous zenith before the band sublimely recede into the silence of the a-side ending. 

Colossal album highlight Ivory Mountain is truly an epic. Evoking moments of 4Hero, there is a lightness of groove in the first half of this soulful exploration. But at the halfway point, all restraint is let go as a live string section joins the four quarters of the band for three glorious minutes of soulful disco. Evoking sounds of Quincy Jones, George Benson and Johnny Hammond, all the way through to a beautifully cacophonous finale. 

Dragonfly undoubtedly reflects on the work of Herbie Hancock and is the most direct throwback to the band’s earlier work, which is a welcome marker of how far they have come. A quintessential jazz funker. 

The album closes with the thoughtful and introverted shuffle of Miles Away. In the final eight minutes of Murmuration, The Expansions allow space and time to take precedence, with once-more-restrained peaks and developments. It becomes clear though, that the band cannot resist one last explosive finale, as they rise with screeching synths, strings and dubs for a perfect race to the finish line. 

You can hear the influences of Idris Muhammad, Grover Washington, even parallels with South London peers Yussef Kamaal and Ruby Rushton. But The Expansions have tirelessly worked to create a sound of their own and are very proud, along with label Albert’s Favourites, to finally share it.

Matt Wilde - Inner Peace (feat. Natty Reeves)

Root Records

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