Friday, November 16, 2012

Tatham, Mensah, Lord, & Ranks (2012)


Musical families always evolve along unusual paths. The synergy that brings people together can be places, circumstance, school, college & family. In the case of Tatham, Mensah, Lord & Ranks the unifying force has always been the love of music. Having worked together in different configurations since the late 90′s this musical collective has grown stronger through separate projects coming together to enjoy the process and results of creating music. In 2010 based in different countries the 4 musicians/producers met up and began the first of four recording sessions lasting a week of almost continuous music. 

Revolving seats at keyboard stations, drum kits, programming and more, created a stream of music connected only by the sense of joy. With a history that stretches from the structured worlds of sound systems and national orchestra’s to the chaos of night clubs and blues dances, TMLR have always drawn from a wide range of influences.Kaidi Tatham,Akwasi Mensah,Matt Lord, and dego Ranks have provided a link between their many musical worlds.
In transcending the limits of genre’s and the barriers of style the music defies categories touching down in LA ’75, Kingston ’77, Rio ’80, ’83, Accra ’98 to the world 2019 and yet never really leaving London is a story many can identify with.
Bristling sounds from a killer lineup – a 4Hero-related project done by the quartet of Kaidi Tatham, Akwasi Mensah, Matt Lord, and Dego Ranks – music that definitely explores the next level of expression for the 2000 Black generation! All the best London touches are firmly in place here, but the groove's also fresher than before, too – wonderfully cosmic, yet nicely abstract in a few places too – showing the kind of complication that Tatham's brought to his rhythms in recent years – yet still maintaining all the soulful, righteous focus we could have hoped for! The album features guest work by Eric Lau, Sarina Leah, Bembe Segue, and Nadine Charles – and titles include "THB", "Kenny", "Naive", "Seven4", "Mind Skies", "Badly Persuaded", "Stars Shine For You", "Quantum Shift", "You Know It's Like That", and "Mr Pickles"




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