Head over to the Impossible Ark Bandcamp to get a FREE track taken from the new album.
Stream / download from the embed below
And whilst you listen, have a read of this amazing review from The Times (UK), published on 27th March
Keeping DJs and dancers on their toes and in their element with a steady flow of coveted funk 7”s, and bringing to light a diverse array of world class talent from Spanky Wilson and The Quantic Soul Orchestra to The Bamboos, Hot 8 Brass Band, Alice Russell and more, in its illustrious ten year history Tru Thoughts has served up some of the most acclaimed, memorable and downright incendiary funk releases of our era.
So - thus surrounded by incredible music - on setting out to compile ‘Tru Thoughts Funk’, A&R Robert Luis was faced with a serious case of kid-in-a-candy-store syndrome; after all, how would you distil the dazzling collective back catalogue of The Quantic Soul Orchestra, The Bamboos, Alice Russell, TM Juke, Natural Self, Nostalgia 77 et al into just one CD’s worth of tunes? It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it, and the end result is this essential, super heavyweight compilation showcasing a consistently sky-high level of quality and, perhaps surprisingly for a genre-based compilation, a fresh, eclectic platter of varied aesthetics and international flavours.
From the soulful powerhouse vocals of the UK’s very own Alice Russell and US legend Spanky Wilson to Kylie Auldist and the horn-led, straight down the line dancefloor punch of The Bamboos, through Saravah Soul channelling ’60s Brazil via Noughties East London; the wry, jaunty, almost indie-pop shuffle of The Limp Twins; fast-rising Brighton producer Lack of Afro’s boisterous wah wah treatment of New Orleans’ Hot 8 Brass Band, and of course, Quantic’s trailblazing fusion of funk and soul with Colombian and Caribbean rhythms - you’ll find all this and more nestling happily under ‘funk’ in the Tru Thoughts lexicon.
To add to the classic cuts, Luis has found room for some fine exclusive material as well, including a first CD release for Nostalgia 77’s “Thing”; and two brand new tracks, hot off the press and signed exclusively for this project, from Beta Hector, the solo side project of Simon Hill from adored UK funk band Baby Charles. “Payback” and “Creepin’”, featuring Baby Charles colleague Dionne Charles on guest vox, see multi-instrumentalist Hill putting his own live recordings through an experimental electronic mill, to create an unusual, rough edged, synth-infused brand of raw funk.
‘Tru Thoughts Funk’ comes out on the Unfold imprint, following the hugely successful ‘Tru Thoughts Hip Hop’ and ‘Tru Thoughts Covers’ CDs into the label’s ongoing series of genre-based and themed compilation releases.
In the words of Benedic Lamdin: “Skeletons is a made up band. I kid you not - it doesn’t exist. These musicians never stood in the studio together, they just passed through my house or left some scraps of sound behind after sessions we were working on… “Some of the music here started life as commissions for a library music company, pastiches and forgeries paid for by the current vogue for a certain style of African jazz. Once I’d done a few though I couldn’t stop, it was my default preoccupation, something for me once I’d finished working on other people’s albums. It was relaxation, something that didn’t matter whether it worked or not. The whole LP was made like that, done in the time between recording jobs.
“To me the whole thing has been a self indulgent forgery, an act of mindless fun. If it sounds good then it’s because I just enjoyed the music and enjoyed myself.”
To celebrate the digital release of the whole Fluid Ounce back catalogue (five compilations!) digitally and a new 7″ Solid Steel’s very own DJ Moneyshot has put together a mix of the previously released Fluid Ounce DVD, compressing 90 tracks into 60 minutes! Mixtapes are Moneyshot’s game, and his award-winning efforts for Solid Steel radio shows, XFM and the BBC have become the stuff of legend.
You can hear 30 minutes of this mix on the Ninja Tunes’ Solid Steel website for a week, as from today. Just click the link.
Jeb Loy Nichols, (see more info and a podcast below) has released a digital single, tracklisting is:
Sometime, Somewhere, Somebody/This Morning
UNFOLDDD001
The stunning digital single “Sometime, Somewhere, Somebody” by Jeb Loy Nichols is out now on Impossible Ark Records. This laid back fusion of wry, lyrical country folk and blue-eyed soul is the perfect first taste of the upcoming album, ‘Strange Faith And Practice’, and the musical backing is provided by some of London’s top jazz musicians (including Tim Giles, Mark Hanslip and Impossible Ark co-founder Riaan Vosloo). The B side brings you the summer morning strings of “This Morning”.
“Sometime, Somewhere, Somebody” is available to buy as a digital download from the Etch Shop, and ‘Strange Faith And Practice’ is out on 7th September.
Read more and listen to a podcast from the acclaimed artist, writer and musician Jeb Loy Nichols, at http://www.impossiblearkrecords.co.uk
We’re extremely proud to annouce that we have done a deal with Impossible Ark records to release their music through Unfold. The label is run by Ben Lamdin (Nostalgia77) and Riaan Vosloo who work together on various projects including all the Lizzy Parks material on TT so far. They already have a well repsected catalogue of releases but this new deal should mean you are hearing a lot more from them in 2009 and beyond.
The boys themselves describe the label as,
“A British record label. Focusing on the work of creative musicians, it has released Jazz, Latin and more experimental projects over the past three years.”
The first release will be an album by enigmatic alt-country singer and artist Jeb Loy Nichols, entitled Strange Faith and Practice (September 07). This will be followed by Impossible Ark: A compilation (October 10 2009).
More information:
http://impossiblearkrecords.co.uk/
http://www.jebloynichols.co.uk/
Pretty artwork below:
ARTIST: VARIOUS
TITLE: ‘FLUID OUNCE PRESENTS…’
CAT NO: UNFOLDDVD005
DISTRIBUTION: PINNACLE
LABEL: UNFOLD
RELEASE DATE: 27.10.2008
The brainchild of Fluid Ounce head honcho Chris Vogado - aka one half of Ninja Tune’s Zero dB - ‘Fluid Ounce presents…’ is a groundbreaking compilation: 90 (yes, nine-zero) tracks of exclusive, exciting,original and genre-rampaging music presented in high quality formats on one DVD.
And here’s how it came to be…
It’s 2008; you know how it is; the music industry is flickering in its own embers; compact discs dangle to scare off birds whilst vinyl gathers dust; recordings of music can be heard but not seen.
Chris Vogado struggles back from another gig, another airport, another journey, with two excessively heavy record bags full of vinyl gems. As he enters Fluid Ounce HQ and relieves his sloping shoulder
s, he detours into the vaults where demos bulge off every shelf and remind him of the mammoth task in hand. For years he’s been receiving, auditioning, reviewing and ransacking an ever rising flood of demos, sent with care from around the world. And for the past two years, he’s concentrated great efforts into scooping off the cream and liaising with the artists to optimise their often already exceptional if sometimes under-nurtured sounds. But to release all of these nuggets on 12” heavyweight vinyl, as the quality of the music deserves, when no miserable sod can be bothered to put their wallet where their appreciation of this unsurpassable format is? NON! NO! NO MORE! NOT IN THIS GAME! Chris Vogado, realising he is shouting at nobody, gathers his thoughts and calmly vows to make a change.
Suddenly, through the haze of sunlit dust specks a vision appears (and for once, it is not a naked lady). It could just be the solution: put out a massive collection of the very best of a damned good lot and show the world that quantity and quality can coexist in a small, neat package. Si, si, señores y señoras, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Fluid Ounce Presents… these 90 exclusive, outstanding tracks, from no less than 29 different, mostly new, but always uniquely fresh artists, all carefully plucked and finely tuned by the clean and unforgiving ears of A&R guru Chris Vogado.
“I know I’m hard to please”, sighs Vogado now, “and I know I’ve been a real pain in the arse for most of the artists featured here, meddling to the point of great interference, but it really has been worth it, as they, we - and hopefully you - will all agree.”
Tru Thoughts Hip Hop
‘Unfold Presents: Tru Thoughts Hip Hop’
ARTIST: VARIOUS
TITLE: UNFOLD PRESENTS: TRU THOUGHTS HIP HOP
CAT NO: UNFOLDCD006
DISTRIBUTION: PINNACLE
LABEL: UNFOLD
RELEASE DATE: 10.11.2008
For the first time ever, and to celebrate the launch of Unfold Records, you can now feast your ears on all the heaviest hip hop stylings from the massively diverse catalogue of Tru Thoughts (and hip hop sister label Zebra Traffic) on one essential jam-packed CD.
‘Unfold Presents: Tru Thoughts Hip Hop’ is the first compilation from the Tru Thoughts stable to have an obvious genre theme, but this being Tru Thoughts’ twist on hip hop as it stands today, the vibe is still hugely eclectic and aims to reflect the open-minded musical policy and crossover of influences embraced by hip hop in its original incarnation. The funk of The Bamboos; Quantic’s deep dancefloor mastery; dubstep influences from Me&You; Freddie Cruger’s B Boy drums; and the future grooves of Hint and Milez Benjiman combine with the vocals of Phonte from Little Brother; French rapper Trinidad; Ohmega Watts from the USA; and Life, Dirty Diggers and Rup representing the finest of the UK.
