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Mr Bird - Low-Fi Classics [feat. Greg Blackman] (2014)

Posted By: varrock
Mr Bird - Low-Fi Classics [feat. Greg Blackman] (2014)

Mr Bird - Low-Fi Classics [feat. Greg Blackman] (2014)
MP3 CBR 320 kbps | Tracks: 12 | 42:38 min | 102 Mb
Style: Funk | Label: BBE

The Wait is over for fans everywhere of Portugal's funk fiddler Mr Bird as the long awaited Lo-Fi Classics, his collaboration with honey-voiced blue-eyed-soul warbler Greg Blackman, has arrived. Aside from first single "Since You've Been Gone" highlights include the perky Stax-style ditty "The Morning's Coming", the Afro-soul percussion masterclass "Get On Through" and the deep disco instrumental "GB's Groove".

The imminent arrival of the Lo-Fi Classics album from UK ex-pat funky breaks producer Mr Bird and Greg Blackman (the blue-eyed soul voice of choice for the party breaks and ghetto funk massive!) continues the resurgence of quality British soul that has recently spawned recent LPs by Omar and Smoove & Turrell. While the sound of this drop is nominally closer to the latter of these two acts it has a distinct feel all its own. If I could be arsed to knock up one of those pie chart graphics showing the influences on this album it would break down something like this: fifty per cent 90s soul-hop, fifteen per cent latin breaks, ten per cent disco, ten per cent seventies soul, five per cent contemporary party breaks, five per cent tropical funk and five per cent northern soul (there – now you don’t need a fucking pie chart). If you want a shorthand for the Lo-Fi Classics sound however, think breakbeats that more usually underpin b-boy dancefloor anthems topped with Fugee-ish vocals sung by man and actually not all that lo-fi (certainly minus the dusty samples and raw minimalism that such a name might suggest) and you’re ballpark.

Opener Over Again provides one for the ladies with some boogie sound effects and Blackman emoting about relationships over some unintrusive uptempo breaks. Next up is a monkey favourite, Save Me (no relation to the Aretha song) which is all minimal bluesy big band antics with an irresistible shuffle. The Morning’s Coming is sunny twenty-first century northern soul, Get On Through sunny twenty-first century tropical funk heavy on the latin percussion and Bounce To The Beat turns on a b-boy break, some subtle horns and Blackman’s uplifting request that you get off your ass. Like Smoove & Turrell’s Broken Toys, this LP’s influences are referenced rather than reincarnated, often several in a single track, and blended in a way that creates modern breakbeat soul. Retro this is not but it does provide yet more quality soundtracking for your summer.

Tracklist:

01. Over Again
02. Save Me
03. The Morning's Coming
04. Get On Through
05. Bounce To The Beat
06. Bad Advice Interlude
07. A Love Forever Fly
08. Since You've Been Gone
09. Where Did The Party Go?
10. GB's Groove
11. On The Dancefloor
12. Right This Time