Way back in 2006 – in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England – lovers of all things jazz, funk, soul and hip hop, Mark Slater and Alex Beauchamp get to work on a project that twists and turns right up to now. Mark and Alex, plus a hand picked collective of like-minded people, form Middlewood Sessions with one purpose in mind: to forge heavyweight dance floor jazz jams and widescreen downtempo beats influenced by their shared musical inspirations.
With strong initial support from Gilles Peterson, their debut ‘Fall Back’, an explosive and energising jazz dance monster, was released on the Brownswood Recordings imprint in 2007, prompting heavy rotation in clubs and on radio across the globe, and finished the year in Radio One’s Worldwide Winners. The next step – a double-A sided single on Wah Wah 45s in 2008 – showed off the boys’ penchant for a club jazz banger (‘Red Waters’) combined with a sublime, string-laden, timeless vocal cut (‘Astro Blue’).
Since those initial releases, they have focussed their efforts on their debut album – The Middlewood Sessions. A long time coming, a labour of love, the album is an intense, epic, and cinematic offering. |
