as i mentioned in my previous post, i have been revisiting long lost corners of the archive and upping the digital quality to full phat 320 to make the floors rattle that little bit more.
as part of this process in the last few months i ended up revisiting my hip hop collection, and reconnecting with the era that i enjoyed the most. yeah, i know it’s not flavour of the month these days, but i still love that old school dj on the decks, looped samples, and upfront vocals. yup, give me backpacking, boom bap noise anyday over the plethora of micro genres these days. subsequently, after i sorted out my rawkus collection, i came across an old jerry beeks cd, the crop report, that i had forgotten all about.
turned out that it really hit the spot, and reminded me of a digital freebie i had been sent a few months back from the newly launched fabyl records which had been set up by the well connected nick faber.
the reason for the mental nudge was because, jerry beeks is back with ollie miggs under the guise of bronx slang releasing absolutely brilliant hard hitting, slow and low dirty old school hip hop full of ear bending funky loops, and golden age styled raps. it’s exactly the type of hip hop i have been wanting for a long time.
with a renewed passion, i started keeping an eye on the fabyl label.
i dug around in my digital downloads folder and came across a label compilation, arrival, that they had released earlier in the year (weirdly i am still on a few mailing lists !).
arrival is a set of tracks that establishes the labels intentions, i.e. dancefloor friendly vibes, hip hop beats, looped samples. a revival of a sound that i have been missing.
then came the labels next single, my thing, by el jay burner.
clearly the folks behind the label mean business as this is an absolute modern classic. old soul sample loops, a vocal melody that could melt butter, a deep ribcage bassline (not dubstep electronically enhanced bass), and a toaster adding some next level dancehall vibes.
the song hits hard and became a firm playlister over the summer months, and, i believe picked up some decent radio play.
for me though, the track that really hit the spot was the flip, dub version, which allowed the production to just fly out of the speakers.
and that just about brings us up to date so far, other than to say, fabyl have just released an excellent new single, love and hate, by terry datsun.
the song was originally released by modern soul genius, michael kiwanuka.
for his version, terry has gone for that classic 70s soul, recorded live in the studio sound where guitars are licked, and vocals caressed, with excellent results.
alongside the original version are some very different remixes from unlucky in love, jadell, and tracks haven, all of which keep the melody, but subtly bring out the dancefloor focussed funk in different flavours
i.e. upfront house by unlucky in love, sultry late night mellowness by tracks haven, and full on acid house, hands-in-the-air bleep infused floorfiller by jadell.
needless to say, the single is highly recommended in whichever flavour you choose.
definitely a label to keep an eye and ear open for.
more detail : website