Quantic W/ Sinkane, 7 Deadly Daggers @ The Earl

The Bowery Presents: Quantic w/ Sinkane, 7 Deadly Daggers Thursday March 12 The EARL 8:30pm Doors // $12 ADV Tix: http://bit.ly/QuanticATL Twitter: @quanticmusic @sinkane Quantic - www.quantic.org Quantic, aka Will Holland is a British born Musician, Producer & DJ making Soul, Electronic & Latin Music saturated in the tropical soundwaves of the Carribean. Currently working from his Sonido del Valle studio base in the highlands of Bogota, Colombia, Holland has developed a sound that bridges heritage and progression, marrying spontaneous musicianship with deep, exciting tonality. Holland has completed his fourth Quantic record, which is his fifteenth studio album to date. The album features influences from Ethiopian Jazz to Haitian Compas, Salsa Dura from his Colombian homestead to Detroit techno, with electric sub bass and beat programming, All part of Quantic’s trademark sound. Holland records and mixes from his own Sonido del Valle studio where he utilises a range of vintage studio equipment, working as part sound engineer, musician and producer to procure a rich and original sound. Worcestershire born, Will Holland began his musical career at the age of 16, encouraged by his father, a Welsh born folk musician who worked in mechanical engineering & computer programming and his English born mother, a talented singer and folk enthusiast. By his early teens Holland had been introduced to home recording by his father and started to experiment with sequencing and programming. This, combined with a developing habit for record collecting, a household full of instruments and two older, musical sisters, it was only natural for Holland to setup a makeshift studio in the bedroom of their timber framed home beside the river Severn. After much experimentation, Holland developed a strong repertoire, eventually attracting the attention of ‘Breakin Bread Records’, a London based record label through which Holland released his first 45 ‘We Got Soul’. It was at this point his work as a DJ began to flourish and through a visit to Brighton he was introduced to label ‘Tru Thoughts’. In 2001 TT released his debut album ‘The 5th Exotic’ a collection of sample based songs mined from various lunchbreak trips to record shops and the diverse selection of instruments found in the Holland household, his two sisters also featured as guests. Shortly after the success of ‘The 5th Exotic’ Holland began work on the first Quantic Soul Orchestra record ‘Stampede’, combining live drum loops with Funk & Soul riffs to pay homage to the american Rhythm & Blues 45s spun in Quantic DJ sets. This was the era of the deep funk sound in the UK & the focus was on a raw, hard and incisive dancefloor sound. In that same year ‘The Limp Twins’ were born, a collaboration with Worcester based singer Russell Porter that saw their debut album ‘Tales from Beyond the Groove’ also released on Tru Thoughts records. Following this success and a closer working relationship with label Tru Thoughts, Holland moved his studio operations to Brighton, from which five more studio records flourished: ‘Pushin On’, ‘Apricot Morning‘, ‘Mishaps Happening‘, ‘An Announcement to Answer’ & ‘I’m Thankful’ with legendary US Soul Singer Spanky Wilson. Many of these records featured fellow Brighton resident & talented soul singer Alice Russell. During this time Quantic also toured extensively as a DJ and the Quantic Soul Orchestra circulated internationally as a twelve piece live band. In 2005, Quantic collaborated with long time friend and NY based producer Nickodemus on Latin hit ‘Mi Swing es Tropical’. The song was recorded in San Juan following an invite to Puerto Rico from Candela records and eventually receiving worldwide exposure through its use in an Itunes television advertising campaign. After a year of travelling and recording through Puerto Rico, Panama & Colombia the album ‘Tropidelico’ was released, a sonic adventure through Cumbia, Soul & Salsa. It was around this time that Holland upped and left for Colombia, basing himself in the western city of Cali, to explore the rich musicianship leftover from the Salsa heyday and infuse his productions in the discotecas back alleys of one of Latin America’s finest musical cities. Although drawn into Colombia by the sound of Cumbia & Porro, Holland soon found himself in a city steeped in ‘Pacifico’ identity (a Afro Colombian genre hailing from Pacific coastal villages), melomanos (record collectors who preserve the sounds of Cuban, Puerto Rican & NY Salsa) and an overwhelming wealth of studio musicians. It was here he began working with Peruvian born virtuoso pianist Alfredito Linares, Percusionist Freddy Colorado and Pacifico folklorist singer Nidia Gongora, with whom The Combo Bárbaro was formed, Quantic Soul Orchestra drummer Malcolm Catto also featured in this group. The studio album ‘Tradition in Transition’ was soon released, parallel to this, Holland produced two more records ‘Death of the Revolution’ and ‘Dog with a Rope’. Both were released by Tru Thoughts under his Dub production guise Flowering Inferno and featured Reggae rhythms combined with Cumbia & Curulao inflections. After a pause in collaborations with singer Alice Russell, Russell travelled to Cali and embarked on a new record with Quantic, utilising the tight Sonido del Valle studio band with violinist Mike Simmonds as invited guest. Shaping an authentic, soulful and psychedelic sound, the pair released their first entire full length collobaration ‘Look Around the Corner’ in 2011. In 2012 Quantic went on to produce and record ‘Ondatropica’, a collobative project with Bogota producer Mario Galeano aka Frente Cumbiero. Featuring a cast of more 40 musicians, the British Council funded project was received with great acclaim both in Colombia and Europe. In 2012 Ondatropica embarked on an international tour, garnering attention at their performance during the 2012 London olympic celebrations and at New York’s prestigious Lincoln Centre. Quantic’s enigmatic productions and musical expressions as Guitarist, Accordionist & Studio engineer have earned him a large international fanbase and constant engagements as a music selector, remixer & band director. Quantic’s fifteenth studio record ‘Magnetica’ is planned for release in Summer 2014. Sinkane – http://sinkane.com/ It’s soul music! And truly universal; uniting rhythm and styles from our world over to help you move, relate and be, Sinkane’s Mean Love rolls like an emotional, existential history of the artist. Co-produced with long-time Sinkane collaborator and childhood friend Greg Lofaro, Ahmed Gallab has created an altogether unique compound of sound, stylistically nostalgic and ultramodern at the same time. From Gallab’s childhood in Sudan there is a Pan-African influence of popular Sudanese music and haqibah, as well as distinct horn and synth arrangements more common to East Africa. This background merges with the lessons learned from Ahmed‘s stints with obsessive craftsmen such as Caribou, Yeasayerand Of Montreal, and especially the monumental task he underwent as musical director of‘ATOMIC BOMB! The Music of William Onyeabor.’ Gallab excavated and arranged a treasure trove of lost classics from the West African synth-pioneer to put together a now legendary series of performances. Alongside his band-mates in Sinkane (jaytram on drums, Ish Montgomery on bass, Jonny Lam on guitar), he also brought on guests Damon Albarn, David Byrne, The Lijadu Sisters, Money Mark and members of Hot Chip,LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, and Blood Orange. The experiences from this on-going endeavor contribute to the collective feel of the record.It is Gallab’s uncanny ability to embrace and assemble a huge history as pure and generous modern-musical expressions. The funky, infectious brasslines of “New Name,” as well as the Equatorial “Young Trouble” are prime examples of the incredible aptitude of Sinkane’s songwriting. Employing the architecture of pop, and a forward-thinking approach to its classic instrumentation, the vibes of Sinkane’s deep-groove past remain intact, in full force.We could lay down a bunch of extra buzzwords to this collection, of course; there are doses of West African funk slow-burners, a noir blaxploitation cool, and a more afro-centric Curtis Mayfield is present, specifically in album standout “Hold Tight.” In the end, these songs GIVE, and its up to you to take what you want. You can detect a surprising country soul rising in the title track, “Mean Love”, and also in the hauntingly beautiful slide guitar work of “Galley Boys.” Both tunes are reminiscent of a time when soul heavyweights such as James Carr and Solomon Burke recorded juke joint anthems. The title track sits proudly on the same mantelpiece as an updated version of those classics, a tearjerker that will grip the imaginative heart of modern concertgoers and collectors of dusty soul on vinyl. It takes a disciplined mind as well as an artistic heart to curate so many influences and disseminate them wisely. A longing and verve for his African origins emanates from the album in a particularly poignant sequence of songs. When “Son” undulates with the mantra, “I will not forget where I came from” and segues into the Sudanese Pop melody of“Omdurman,” (Gallab’s hometown in Sudan) it is the romantic recapturing of a lost childhood memory, and a jolt to the listener’s solar plexus. Says lyricist Greg Lofaro,“I think, to a lot of secular folks, the most compelling argument for heaven is the thought of seeing loved ones. In this case, the melody informed the content very specifically and I knew I wanted to speak graciously, not bitterly, about that. Ahmed typically names sketches for what they’re inspired by or remind him of. Often, that’s something Sudanese (“Warm Spell” had been called “Kurdufan” for awhile). So, it was fitting and we kept the title Omdurman.” This song also has a live quality – when you hear in on record, it precipitates the image of a live hymn, a promise that begs for an audience call and response, “Where, if I should settle down, will I finally settle?” Mean Love is an album with an open door invitation, and gets deeper with every listen.You hear it right away in the blistering opening track, “How We Be.” An instant classic, sounding like a lost gem of soul funk, a sweetness of voice alongside honey bass lines, the tune grips you and makes you wish for a dance floor, while enticing you to stay for the whole journey of the album. Paul Gilroy, the path-breaking scholar and historian of the music of the Black Atlantic diaspora, once wrote that a primary characteristic of black cross-Atlantic creativity is a “desire to transcend both the structures of the nation state and constraints of ethnicity and national particularity.” Nothing could be more precise about the cross-disciplined, multifaceted second album by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab, aka Sinkane: Mean Love.