Saturday Night Traxx_111420
Ben Hixon & Stefan Ringer / Lady Blackbird (Bruise remix) / Sandilé / Soul Renegades / The Lemko Unlimited Orchestra
The second tour of lockdown duty beckons, which means that even the most beatwise records won’t percolate communal dance-floors anytime soon. But battening down our collective hatches isn’t the same thing as forgetting what sharing space, or making space for and with each other means. To paraphrase Thulani Davis, I wish us all the dancing we can get our hands on — even if we can’t touch one another.
When it appears, Saturday Night Traxx will include only new rhythmic libations, which you will be able to hear from start to finish. (With links to platforms where you can directly support the artists - which you should.)
Ben Hixon is a producer at (founder of?) Dallas’ excellent Dolfin Records, home to a community of rhythmically omnivorous Black folks, including Blaque Dynamite, (Liv).e, Jon Bap and numerous others. Stefan Ringer (sometimes REKchampa) is one of ATL’s great producers of dance records and DJs — and on this initial alliance, a vocalist. “Back Seat Driver” sounds like part paean to “Lady Cab Driver,” part anal sex proposition (SFW double entendres, nothing dirty), and all great stumbling choreography hard funk made from drums and synths. Just the right balance of #PurpleTears and its own soul.
I found out about Los Angeles-based jazz singer Lady Blackbird (professed name Marley Munroe) from the excellent Balearic-plus blog, Ban Ban Ton Ton - before spotting Ross Allen as A&Ring the creation of her debut album, an oft jazz-piano-trio set due early 2021 with the working title Black Acid Soul. (Get excited!) This, though, is nothing like that — but something odder. James Gang’s “Collage” is a great late-’60s psychedelic folk-rock tripper, one of those quasi-poetic, over-the-top, string-arrangement-weighted epics that Bob Dylan and drugs get rightfully blamed for. Here, it’s a foundation for a crushing piece of vocals+piano+strings big-room house music, courtesy London producers, Bruise. Populist AF, so don’t get mad when Pete Tong plays it.
What little I know of Cologne’s Sandilé (Born Zandile Mkwanazi) I’ve learned since receiving her new EP on Monty Luke’s excellent Black Catalogue label; which is that she’s reimagined a bunch of vocals by bold-face artists/songs into excellent original pieces for techno-oriented audiences. “MJ Flip” is in keeping with them. The hook comes from the once-infamous King of Pop, from a lesser-known (Stevie Wonder-written) track off his first stratospherically successful album. As with most of Sandilé’s catalog, “Flip” has little to do with the edit world, but is instead a deep-ass ride guided by a familiar voice, a grounding, if you will, while the road falls away.
“Speak to Me” is exactly the kind of tune I’ve come to seek from Local Talk, a Swedish label that regularly releases good big-tent, old-school house records — catchy vocal hook with uplifting sentiment, deeply melodic elements, hard-edged beat — that’re no one’s idea of cutting edge, but also not corny. Might seem like a back-handed compliment, but there’s not many songs nowadays that can light up old heads while avoiding nostalgia. This track by Soul Renegades, Scottish producers Craig Smith and Ricky Reid (who originally met while working on one of Smith’s 6th Borough Project records), fits the bill: just enough “Good Life” and gospel and drum machine breaks.
A Brooklyn percussionist who goes by the name of Eugene Tambourine, but has made a lot of different kind music over the last decade-plus. The Lemko Unlimited Orchestra is a 2019 single project (but only recently gone digital) recreating classic NYC dance records by fronting Afro-Brazilian percussion vibes. The main tracks are great, Loft-style grooves; but the “versions” are next-level mind-f*ckery, mixing talking drums, shekere, congas, with a just a touch of aceeeeiiid. Few people’s idea of a big-room “banger,” but 100% that Dada Strain hard at work.