How Do You Feel

In keeping with something I’ve blogged about previously, and in fond memory of my old friend Scott Bulloch, who was a big part of the Hit + Run label family prior to his death in November 2017, I downloaded the label’s end-of-year 2018 compilation, How Do You Feel.

It’s a decent overview of Hit + Run’s work, featuring a mix of material from the label’s 2018 releases, and some essentials from past output, including work from label favourites like Kutmah, Esgar, CrimeKillz, and Zackey Force Funk (who I had the pleasure of meeting - via Bulloch - at a Hit + Run screen-printing event back in late 2013).

In fact, that Zackey Force Funk track, ‘Funky Gangster’, midway through the release, is almost an exact template for the “warped out funk” Bulloch loved so much, “offensive if you’re a puritan, dirty, and reeking of sex” …

Released three weeks ago, the digital album is on Bandcamp as a “limited time free download”, so get in there …

 

HNRMMXV

The end of another year inevitably means the release of another sumptuous compilation album from the LA-based Hit+Run label.

The 2015 edition features prime cuts from blog favourites like Kutmah, Zackey Force Funk, and a new discovery (for everythingsgonegreen) in the form of the Contact Field Orchestra, plus many others.

Check it …

Album Review: Al Dobson Jr. - Sounds from the Village Volume 1 (2014)

South London DJ/producer Al Dobson Jr certainly gets around. It seems he's everywhere at the moment – with two brand new album releases and a couple of high profile Boiler Room sets behind him, along with the buzz being generated by the heavyweight likes of Mixmag, XLR8R, FACT, and Resident Advisor, he's very much a man of the moment.

Fresh from dropping a curtain raiser for the fledgling Rhythm Section International label, an album called Rye Lane Volume One, we get this one, Sounds from the Village Volume 1, a second full-length release, this time on Kutmah's IZWID imprint. There were 2013 collaborations with Creole - on the experimental Japanese-themed Japan Project - and Tenderlonious - four tracks on a shared release, and it’s fair to say Dobson Jr’s current profile and status as a genuine up and comer is hard earned and well deserved.

 

Quite often these new releases come with promo blurbs so far wide of the mark it renders them rather pointless, but IZWID's own description of Dobson Jr's album nails it in a way that almost makes this review utterly superfluous. I honestly can’t think of a better way to describe what we get on Sounds from the Village than … “cosmic vocal rips and a myriad of loose, soul-infused beat tape-style sketches with its digital flourishes”…

Each and every one of those sample-licious “vocal rips” blend beautifully with the bass-centric rhythmic foundations underpinning everything else, while those “digital flourishes” consist of loops that glisten with washes of warm synth and a host of other glitchy bits and bobs. This is one part soulful-5am-vibe, and two parts dirty funk leftovers, with a sense of pure decadence right at its core.

After an opening couple of minutes (and tracks) so laid back they’re practically horizontal, the highlights start to emerge, and it’s an album that steadily builds in momentum to become a rich and warm listening experience.

The production from label guru Kutmah and Dobson Jr himself is pristine, and as is the IZWID way, Kutmah contributes wider design and cover art, which LA-based collective HIT+RUN will hand-print on a chipboard jacket … (er, not quite sure how that works, but obviously this is for vinyl only copies and not something you’ll get with a download or anything … which I sincerely hope goes without saying!).

The best tracks here are ‘Dunza Blues’, ‘Maiysha’, ‘Sensi Block’, ‘Work Together’ and ‘Tomorrow’, but even some of the shorter tracks, some of the more experimental half formed ideas resonate in a way they probably really shouldn’t.

So if I have a small criticism it’s exactly that. Some of these tracks do actually feel slightly less than fully formed – just as they’re warming to their task they abruptly expire and we’re immediately onto the next way-too-short groove. I get that sometimes less is more, but equally, with vibes this good, sometimes more is also more. The entire 15 track album is over in a tick over 33 minutes, so it is fairly short by album standards.

 

Then again, perhaps that’s part of its charm. If brevity is the source of any genuine frustration, why not just flip it over or press “repeat play”? …

Download Sounds from the Village Volume 1 here

 

And also from IZWID, there’s this little beauty, Seven Davis Jr doing Prince’s 'Controversy', this has been out six months or so now, but it’s a freebie download so you know what you should do …

Download Seven Davis Jr – 'Controversy' here

Al Dobson Jr Boiler Room DJ Set:

 

Hit+Run Sampler 2013

Here’s something I wanted to blog about a few weeks back, but didn’t quite get to ...

On NYE the Hit+Run Crew released a sampler of some of the imprint’s best work from 2013 – it was initially up on Bandcamp as a festive freebie but now has a small “buy now” (minimum $5.00) price to download.

 

Anyone already familiar with Hit+Run’s output will appreciate that the release represents great value, showcasing as it does some of the label’s more prominent artists and a fair few hidden gems. There’s some cool stuff on this – in particular, check out Crimekillz, Esgar, Kutmah, Seven Davis Jr, and Al Dobson Jr.

Here’s a short blurb from the H+R Bandcamp page ...

“Throughout 2013, H+R CREW released ELEVEN amazing albums consisting of original music, remixes and more (some in collaboration with IZWID and BLACK JUNGLE SQUAD). Also included here are two unreleased tracks from forthcoming 2014 HIT+RUN releases (January & February 2014) plus an additional super secret bonus track”.

Get the sampler HERE

IZWID, Kutmah, and Hit + Run

Last weekend I checked out the Red Bull Sound Select presents … /Hit + Run gig at Wellington’s Bodega venue. It was a rare night out, not only for the opportunity it presented to hook up with a bunch of old faces from way back, but for the promise of a handful of top drawer travelling DJs, and to experience live screen-printing as performance art … or to witness live art as performance. Or something.

I’d committed to doing it sober … (ish), so it’s fair to say the night had a sharper edge to it than it normally would, but the vibe around the venue was warm and generous, and the beats were never anything less than the main attraction … despite one half of the dancefloor seamlessly morphing into an art studio for much of the night. The first 100 punters walked away with a hand-picked design screen-printed tee, as the smoothly oiled Hit + Run Crew did its thing. It was a lot of fun. 

I went primarily to catch up with Hit + Run marketing guru Scott Bulloch, a long-time friend of some 30 years. I’d been in touch with him via social media earlier in the week, after noticing another project he’s been heavily involved with – IZWID – was starting to gain some serious traction. I was keen to learn what that was all about, and after experiencing the artistic aesthetic of Hit + Run first hand last weekend, I can now see exactly what IZWID is setting out to achieve … a compelling blend of art, music, and performance.

I asked Scott to explain where IZWID comes from, what drives it, who’s involved, and what we can expect in the future …

“IZWID is the imprint of an artist called Kutmah, a place we can release the music and art which have been secret signatures in Kutmah’s performances over the last few years. From what I understand, “Iswid" is Egyptian for “black”… Kutmah (of Egyptian heritage) explained to me that his mum always pronounced her “S’s” as “Z’s”, IZWID id iz then!


Kutmah is probably one of music’s best kept secrets in London right now, he’s a tight friend, so we decided to make his stuff less secret with an arts and crafts style label without any (of the) record company bullshit. The motivation was that he really wanted to help these musicians to get heard beyond his sets … people go mental on this stuff on the dance floor, but labels don’t want to know, so time to start a “record label”.

Kutmah is not just a DJ, he’s a curator, a digger, a creator, and a super nice guy who really only comes out to play and enlighten others. When he plays, who the hell knows what he is playing at any time, but when he does play a set just seems to meld together into some story about your life. You get touched, and that’s a rare thing in these days of super pop shit and pre-genrefied prejudice. It’s hard to explain but there are these often unreleased elements that he uses to tell stories with his performances; they can be sad, they can be motivating, they can be disturbing … to me they are simply mesmerising when knitted together in a mix. Kutmah has the ability to take music from any age and make it sound like it was supposed to be played right now.

Kutmah

I met Kutmah just over a year ago through my good friend Brandy Flower, who has championed Kutmah since he was a freaky kid. Brandy and the HIT+RUN Crew is the reason IZWID exists. He is the link that brings art and music back together.

IZWID’s first release was Esgar, hard out energetic Future Bass with dub overtones and a hypnotic bass space. The second release from Seven Davis Jr I’ll describe as Shroom Funk. It’s all over the place as much as the 1999-2012 time it was created in, but I have to say it’s one of the finest musical deliveries I’ve ever been part of; it’s house, it’s warped out funk, it’s offensive if you’re a puritan. It’s funny to me, I love it, so dirty, analog, and it reeks of sex.

The next instalment is from Peckham, some beautiful loose beats from a young talent sonically travelling under his grand-dad's name, Al Dobson Jr. He is IZWID-003 and I can’t wait to make this record. We have a busy schedule going into 2014 that was pre-planned a year ago. In saying that, you should not expect anything … we’ll just plonk it in front of you anyway”.

Izwid on Bandcamp here

Hit+ Run website here

And here's a slice of warped out funk sex from Seven Davis Jr: