Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Skeletons - Smile (2010)


Benedic Lamdin is a musician, producer and engineer. He has produced a string of highly acclaimed LPs as Nostalgia 77 for Tru Thoughts; he also produces all the releases for his own label, Impossible Ark, including this one.

He says: "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. This record is like a guy, pieced together and ready for the bonfire... 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... 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."

The Skeletons track, Positive Force, which appears on this album, was given an early airing on Impossible Ark: A Compilation in October, to immense acclaim and support from tastemakers including Ashley Beedle (X-Press 2/Ministry Of Sound Radio/RBMA), Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio 1), Craig Charles (BBC 6Music) and Snowboy; and excellent reviews from all corners, from i-DJ magazine through to Mercury Prize Recommends. Smile is the full album, and more than worth the wait.

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