The worlds of dub and jazz collide when Prince Fatty
meets Nostalgia 77 ‘In The Kingdom Of
Dub’; this intriguing collaborative album, out 22nd
September on Tru Thoughts, sees two like
minded musical explorers joining forces to illuminate the shared
roots and spirit of rebellion at the heart of these two genres. Early
tastemaker support includes confirmed reviews in The Wire,
Clash, Q, DJ Mag
and Blues & Soul, and radio play from Jamie
Cullum (BBC R2).
Prince Fatty – maverick producer of Hollie
Cook and countless pop and reggae legends alongside his own
Soundsystem projects – puts his spin on the music of bluesy jazz
wunderkind Nostalgia 77, for a full
set of exclusive new versions of tracks from across the latter’s
prolific career, including collaborations with Alice Russell,
Keith and Julie Tippett and Beth Rowley.
The result is a deep, energetic and transporting listen, with an
intense flavour that celebrates and builds upon the sonic and
cultural beauty of both jazz and dub.
Preceding the album, 18th
August saw the digital double A-side single, “Medicine
Chest Dub”/“Seven Nation Army Dub feat. Dennis Alcapone”,
premiered via tastemaker blog Earmilk. The “Medicine
Chest” original, featuring Josa Peit’s
sultry vocals, is one of the most popular songs from Nostalgia 77’s
latest album ‘A Journey Too Far’, which came out
in February to support including heavy BBC 6Music
play; Prince Fatty’s dub makeover injects a playful power while
amping
up its bluesy roots for an explosive jam.
Nostalgia 77’s gutsy “Seven Nation Army”
cover featuring Alice Russell, on the other hand,
was released almost ten years ago on his second solo LP ‘The
Garden’; this new reggae version of the still in-demand
classic - boasting the additional talents of Jamaican great Dennis
Alcapone - simply nails it once again, reaching a new level
of genre-defying heaviness.
Over the course of ‘In The Kingdom Of Dub’,
Prince Fatty works his magic on a diverse repertoire that spans a
decade and has been lauded by everyone from Gilles Peterson
to Cerys Matthews to The Guardian.
The spiritual Afro-jazz of “Positive Force”,
“Marathon Man” and “Skeletons”, all
from instrumental side-project Skeletons (2012),
sits alongside the coolly subversive, rhythm & blues inflected
“Rainclouds”, voiced by ‘60s icon
Julie Tippett (née Driscoll), from 2009’s ‘Nostalgia
77 Sessions’. Another current track from ‘A Journey Too
Far’ - psychedelic folk wig-out “An Angel With No Halo”
- is joined by classic Nostalgia 77 cuts in the shape of
delicate, Balearic trip-hop lullabies “Little Steps”
and “Quiet Dawn”, both bearing the spun-sugar
vocals of a pre-stardom Beth Rowley and taken from
2007’s ‘Everything Under The Sun’ album.
Much of the source material for this record was in fact originally
engineered and mixed at Prince Fatty’s famous Ironworks
studio in Brighton, where Benedic Lamdin (aka Nostalgia 77)
has spent a lot of time over the years since meeting Mike Pelanconi
(Prince Fatty) in the mid-noughties. While all the above mentioned
reworks were created especially for this release, the bonus
track - a dub of “Zombie Dance Parts 1 & 2”
by the live outfit Nostalgia 77 Octet - has been
unearthed from the band’s first ever live recording session, which
was helmed by Pelanconi, and planted the seed for this entire album.
“It showed us that the worlds of dub and jazz could clash with
powerful results”, says Lamdin of the incendiary piece which
still sounds fresh and vital today.
In addition to out-there album artwork by JAKe,
Prince Fatty’s go-to designer, the CD comes with heartwarming
and entertaining liner notes by Lamdin telling the story of
his and Pelanconi’s shared history and ideals - copied in
full overleaf if you would like a lovely read. Look out also
for a great video interview with the pair, filmed in
the recording geek’s mecca that is the Ironworks studio.
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