Beats// Interviews
The Hackney, London collective Rudimental are bringing the soul and feel-good vibes back to dance music and massively.
Their debut, Home, sheltering the hits Feel The Love, Not Giving In and Waiting All Night, will go down as one of 2013's defining albums. Now, following Future Music Festival, the multicultural quartet – Amir Amor (AKA Amir Izadkhah), Leon Rolle, Piers Aggett and Kesi Dryden – are headlining their own sell-out tour. Izadkhah summarises Rudimental's live show as "a carnival experience", with nine people on stage, including a horn section and Home vocalists Sinead Harnett and Becky Hill. He plays guitar and bass. "We're like Sly And The Family Stone, but in the present age: Sly And The Family Stone, but with jungle music," Izadkhah laughs in his deep baritone. These days Izadkhah lives out of tour buses, but he sounds cheerful enough. "Now we're sort of expanding a little bit, so we're getting two buses, but at first there was 14 of us on one bus!" Rudimental, initially unleashing Deep In The Valley in 2011, are typically described as D&B yet Home harks back to those classic British albums by Soul II Soul and Massive Attack that contemporised soul. Most surprising is the record's prestigious line-up of guest vocalists. A then relatively unknown Rudimental managed to secure Emeli Sandé and US femcee Angel Haze. Izadkhah attributes this not to A&R manoeuvres but to years of networking. Indeed, prior to launching Rudimental, the rising producer was running Major Toms studio – a "hub" that they're now developing into a label. Izadkhah grew up with Plan B, the two writing songs together: "He
ntal e m i d Ru e by Cyclon
actually taught me my first few chords on the guitar." Sandé sings on two of Home's songs, having caught Rudimental early on supporting Maverick Sabre at Brixton Academy. "She just told us how much she likes our records and told us she's a fan and stuff – and we hooked up. She actually lives around the corner from the studio." Haze contacted Rudimental, seeking to work with them on her upcoming Dirty Gold. Izadkhah himself produced Hell Could Freeze with her. "She's a wicked writer," he commends. However, Home's break-out star has gotta be the Northern soulster John Newman, whom Rudimental encountered performing at an open-mic night in a pub. The posse had already demoed Feel... with Dryden's "dodgy vocals" but realised Newman would make it. Feel... gathered dust while Rudimental issued Spoons (it apparently "confused" industry types). But, more worryingly, just before Feel... shot to No.
1 in the UK, Newman had surgery for a benign brain tumour. "With John, it's like half the time you don't know if he's being serious or not but, yeah, he was pretty serious about that one," Izadkhah rues. Newman will drop his album next month, but Rudimental aren't involved – the singer was determined to self-produce. "It sounds wicked. He's got a really good album. I wouldn't be surprised if it does very well." Rudimental could potentially become producers-for-hire, but they're taking things slowly. They've turned down "insane" remix offers, Izadkhah admits, for "really serious money – more money than we've got nearly for our album advance" – because they want to establish themselves. Izadkhah worries that Rudimental "is still a confusing concept for a lot of people – a band without a singer." What's more, they genrehop – sometimes even within the same song. Nevertheless, Rudimental have lately cut material with gangsta rapper The Game and
WHO: Rudimental WHAT: Home (Warner) WHERE: HQ WHEN: Thu Sep 19
Incoming
CD Reviews
Nina Las Vegas
Gold Panda
(ABC Music/Universal)
(Liberator)
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This much-hyped second offering from triple j’s resident party DJ, Nina Las Vegas, delivers a walloping 41 tracks of some of the creamiest party tracks in Las Vegas’ impressive arsenal. Given the capitalisation that triple j could harness from NLV’s booming popularity – they could easily do a Glee and turn each week’s instalment into a mixtape if they so desired – yet thankfully are instead trying to protect the House Party brand. The first disc starts off hard and fast with Gesaffelstein’s Pursuit and smooths out by the end with Chvurches, Tame Impala and Disclosure to round it out. The second disc is more of the same, yet with less grunting EDM and silkier electro. Throwbacks to darker times, with Riot In Belgium’s La Musique and Benny Benassi’s cringing Satisfaction, jar the fluidity of the NLV’s mastery – yet remind us that House Party exists to help weekend pre-drinks flow, so we’ll take the kitsch with the kool. Lachlan Aird
It’s not often you can hear an album and immediately envisage yourself in another city or country, especially within dance music, a genre that lends itself to repetition and familiarity. Yet UK producer Gold Panda’s knack of transporting the listener to a foreign place is a valuable and unique trait. In that sense, Half Of Where You Live plays out less as a whole composition and more as the album of your own individual dreams. Gold Panda describes Half Of Where You Live as a “city album” based on time spent in Sao Paolo and London. It’s easy to lull yourself into these thoughts when the album features titles like Brazil, Enoshima, and My Father In Hong Kong 1961. More importantly though is how these tracks not only reference the sounds of these places, but maintain the producer’s uniquely refreshing beat-driven sound. It will urge you to watch old documentaries and inspire you to see the world. Sam Reynolds
Triple J House Party Volume Two
their labelmate Ed Sheeran in Los Angeles. "We ended up doing a couple of what might be the singles and three other tracks, which are sounding amazing, on Game's record," reveals Izadkhah, adding that the MC has asked Rudimental to serve as executive producers. Not that The Game's album will be a de facto Rudimental project. "Even though we're giving him a bit of a Rudimental flavour, it's still hip hop." Regardless, it isn't an obvious collab. "It's fun to do out-of-the-box stuff," Izadkhah enthuses. Especially with the folkie Sheeran, a sometime One Direction songwriter, on board... "It's definitely weird, but it sounds amazing!"
Half Of Where You Live
Miguel Campbell Outcross boss and Hot Creations artist, Miguel Campbell, is one of the UK’s most revered house music players. Campbell, who dropped the LP Back In Flight School on Hot Creations last year, will play Mr Kim’s on Fri Oct 4 (Labour Day Weekend). Supports: Tom N Tys, Juddo, Ezee G and Leeroy Brown.
Trus’Me Prime Numbers founder Trus’me returns to Sugar after a set at the club earlier this year. The UK DJ and producer behind the recent acclaimed real house album Treat Me Right is a Sugar favourite with his eclectic taste and passion for digging. Catch the Manchester DJ at Sugar on Fri Sep 20. Supports: Betty, Zej Burton and Skippy. RipITUPMAGAZINE//ripitup.com.au
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