MENSAH 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Starting 2020 like they mean to go on, West London's 2000 Black crew serves up an essential four-tracker created during jam sessions between regular collaborators Kaidi Tatham, Akwasi Mensah, Matt Lord and Dennis "Dego" McFarlane (Ranks). As with their previous collaborative releases, its' four tracks variously join the dots between deep house, bruk, jazz-funk and mellower flavours. As usual, the beats are tight and weighty, the musicianship exceptional (Kaidi's keys-playing being a particular highlight), the chords deep and the lead lines memorable. While all four tracks are excellent, our picks are the rubbery bruk-up bliss of "Return of Pastor Shadrach" and the sun-kissed broken house warmth of "Life After Subway".

Review: It would seem we're back on the Christmas card list... 2000 Black supergroup comprising the likes of Dego, Mensah and original Bugz members Lord and Tatham have been slowly ramping up their releases again and this year has seen their largest output yet. Following "Two Way Here One Way Go", "Simmering" proffers three more sublime and silky instrumentals from deeply decorated foursome. "Simmering" is a tight jazz funk jam with a sprung guitar groove spine and a blissful switch into soothing flutes midway, "Private Life" flips for a sunnyside digidub, all spacious and rippling with its breezy keys while "Climb The Sun" brings us back to the funk root note but with rising synth insistency that's bruk to the bone. Simmering now, boiling tomorrow...

Review: The latest missive from the reliable 2000 Black camp is a collaborative affair, featuring the combined talents of Kaidi Tatham, Mr Mensah, Matt Lord and Dego (this time under the Ranks alias). With such talent on show, it's unsurprising that A-side "Two Way Here One Way Go" - a rolling, club-ready fusion of Tony Allen style drums, Afro-futurist sounds and killer musical touches - is thoroughly fantastic. It's accompanied by two tasty B-sides: a pitched down, synth-heavy shuffler entitled "No Facetime (Errors)" and the starry, up-tempo, Herbie Hancock style jazz-funk-meets-Restless Soul grooves of "BBQ".

Review: Back in 2012, the collective talents of Dego, Kaidi Tatham, Mr Mensah and Matt Lord combined for a superb album on 2000Black. Last year saw the quartet reconvene in the studio for a 12" snappily titled Off The Christmas Card List (possibly named in homage to anyone calling their music broken beat) which was mooted as a precursor to a new LP! Another taster now arrives on 2000 Black in the shape of the Cascade 12", brandishing a triplet of toasty future boogie standards primed for dancefloor deployment. The warm Rhodes, shuffling percussion and occasional twisted FX of "The Inside Is The Outside" stand out, as does the sweet soul strut of "The Believer", though there is a reason the title track hogs the A-side. That reason? It's a delight!

Review: Last spotted together on the cut some three years ago with their eponymous debut LP, the crew like Kaidi Tatham, Akwasi Mensah, Matt Lord, and Dego 'Ranks' McFarlane reunite for this fresh 2000Black 12". Off the Christmas Card List is apparently a precursor to a second album from the quartet and it's the last 12" in a fine year for 2000Black that saw the killer Dego LP as the centrepiece. The A-side is dedicated to the title cut, an endlessly slinky boogie number that really showcases the collective musicality of this crew, whilst the B-side is split between "Hurry Whilst They Are Away" and "Fila High". The former is bugged out beat down West London-style, and the latter a killer Latin-flecked cut.

Review: Once upon a time, this kind of gathering of broken beat and nu-jazz masters - not to mention the stellar cast list of guest instrumentalists and vocalists - would have caused major ripples. As it is, Tatham, Mensah, Lord & Ranks will probably fall through the cracks. That would be a crying shame, because it's actually pretty tasty. Soulful, deep, jazz-flecked and brilliantly produced, it sounds like a long lost collaboration between IG Culture, Herbie Hancock and Bugz In The Attic (unsurprising since it features many Bugz collaborators and members, from Mark De Clive-Lowe and Bembe Segue, to Mark Force and, of course, Kaidi Tatham). Highlights are plentiful, from the liquid funk of "Mr Pickles", to the sweet modern soul of "Get Up, Lift Up", via the floor-friendly pulse of "Kenny".