Review: Belleruche – Rollerchain

Tru Thoughts’ Belleruche are now on to their fourth full-length release and they’ve made a concerted effort to shake things up a bit. We all know that they do the DIY electro-soul thing well, so it seems that they wanted to show us they can make a darker, more complex sound work too.

Luckily, they don’t disappoint.

#173 – Look Around The Corner

I’ve been sitting on this for a week now, enjoying it all to myself. And I really have been enjoying it. Quantic is a name that ought to be used as an adjective: “That track is so Quantic”, “I just had the most Quantic meal” and “I met this girl last night and we totally bumped Quantics”. Okay, so that last one wasn’t an adjective, but who cares. My point is he’s been consistently great for over a decade now and reassuringly this new album seems like it’s going to stand up next to his previous ones (of which there are many).

#168 – Anchorsong

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Jazz Café for HMV’s next big thing, whilst the show was undoubtedly stolen by Belleruche (hardly surprising what with them being and the headlining act), a special mention needs to be made to Anchorsong. Anchorsong (aka Masaaki Yoshida) is a Japanese artist and producer who uses a sampler, a keyboard and some sort of black magic to create incredible electronic music.  It’s rare enough to find this kind of music that I’ll listen to – let alone really like – but this really hits the spot.

#157 – Hint

Here’s a song called ‘Aliens Enter’ from a UK artist signed to the ever-excellent Tru Thoughts. This song features Austin-native T Fly rapping over the top of a bottom heavy, breaks influenced production that sounds grimey. Her flow is lazy and and the slow BPM makes this a track to listen to loud while driving slow. Actually, I think I want to hear this on a soundsystem at Carnival or something. It’s sick.

#156 – Belleruche Told Me To

Belleruche live… unbelievable. The Jazz Café in Camden is always a great venue but it takes someone truly special to get the crowd going to the extent that they did. Great songs, great vibe and a fantastic performance made for a really unforgettable evening. I’ll be buying the new album as soon as it comes out in March and I’ll most definitely be seeing them when there UK tour makes it down to Scala on the 31^st of May. I liked them so much that I asked them to send over a few songs that they like (because it’s not all about me) and this is what they sent.
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Curley Moore – Don’t Pity Me (DJ Modest’s selection)

#134 – New Belleruche Single ‘Stormbird’

I was tottering about on the internet today and all of a sudden this song appeared on my Soundcloud. I’m a big fan of Belleruche (I wrote this a little while ago) and thoroughly enjoyed their last album 270 Stories.

#98 – Lanu Told Me To

Lanu is the solo project of Lance Ferguson, who some of you may know from Australia’s The Bamboos. They are responsible for all kinds of sweet funk and soul. A couple of our favourite tracks from them include ‘Step It Up’ which features Alice Russell and their cover of the Kings Of Leon song ‘King Of The Rodeo’ (which we blogged a while ago). He recently released his second album under the Lanu moniker called Her 12 Faces on Tru Thoughts which is a blend of pop, indie, jazz and a bit of breaks for good measure. The second single off this album features Megan Washington on vocal duty, who is also responsible for singing on the Kings Of Leon cover. If this sounds like a good mix then, rest assured, I can tell you it is. Stream the song below and you can download it from Lanu’s bandcamp page for absolutely nothing.

As well as sending us this rather delightful song, Lanu also sent us a couple (three, actually) of songs that he likes and told us a little something about them. Here he is…
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DJ Shadow – Changeling [Buy]
From ‘Endtroducing’ 1996 (Mo’Wax)

#58 – Nostalgia 77 Told Me To

Ben Lamdin, better known as Nostalgia 77 and head honcho of the Nostalgia 77 Octet has kindly decided to tell us about three of his favourite songs. The new album, called The Sleepwalking Society, is due out on Monday 21st March on Tru Thoughts and the lead single is just below. As well as making records he also manages to find the time to run his own record label called Impossible Ark Recordings. They are a small label who seem to like to do things the old fashioned way, with a small roster, vinyl releases and concentrating on getting some really good music out there. You can have a look at the website here and you can go and buy the new album from here. Anyway, on to the music.
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#40 – Belleruche

The self-styled ‘Turn-Table Soul’ music makers from North London have been making good music for over five years now. I say it’s good because it is…  They rely on the great vocal chords of Katherine deBoer, Ricky Fabulous playing his guitar and Mr DJ Modest spinning the decks at the back. They are now three albums into what deserves to be a long and successful career, with their latest offering, ‘270 Stories’, released in October of 2010.

They signed to Tru Thoughts in 2007 and released their debut album that year to much critical acclaim. It’s a mix of breaks, soul, funk and electro that comes together to create something that is very different and very easily identifiable as coming from the Tru Thoughts roster.

In 2010 they released their third album, which has a more polished sound than their first. It’s more bass-heavy and arguably more pop-y, but that’s not to do it a disservice. It is still immensely listenable and Katherine’s voice comes to the fore more prominently.

Belleruche – Northern Girls [Buy]

Music For Horses no. 11

Bonobo / Marina & The Diamonds

Another couple of songs from me. Like the last one I posted I’ve got a song that’s showcasing an excellent contemporary soul singer. Andreya Triana has sung on tons of tracks and worked with lots of people, but the one artist who’s work she features on the most is Bonobo. He produced her debut album called ‘Lost Where I Belong’ that dropped earlier this year and she takes vocal duties on three of the songs on Bonobo’s ‘Black Sands’. She has also worked with the Tru Thoughts label, which in my experience is only ever a good thing. Anyway, enjoy this song. It’s got a chilled groove and some excellent sax work (look here for my take on that). It’s also long enough that you can really get into the song.

Bonobo – Stay The Same Feat. Andreya Triana

Get the song here. Buy Bonobo’s music here and find out more about Andreya Triana here.

My second song was tricky this week: