Tastemaker Gilles Peterson is back with the latest instalment of the Brownswood Bubblers series: lovely number eleven. And it really is lovely. A soundtrack for every day of the week, BB11 takes you from a lazy Sunday to a crazy Monday, keeping you warm and fuzzy inside until you’re ready for the weekend again.
The journey is not without its bumps, but the resounding vibe is one perfectly described by the mellow beats of Photay and gentle vocals of Nick Hakim. Gogo Penguin supply the opener in the shape of ‘Kamaloka’, a jazzy instrumental with the heartbreaking piano skills of Chris Illingworth. File this one next to Aqua Bassino. twenty-year-old Mirror Signal follows with ’20th Century Fix (Warm Weather)’, channelling some ‘Made To Stray’ vibes.
Halfway through, we’re treated to the rather contradictorily sassy ‘No Sass’ by Photay, a downtempo number that packs a punch. The funkiest one of them all is Zackey Force Funk’s ‘Out My Mind’, with a bounce to get even the most sedentary shoulders a-shakin’. Penultimate track ‘Nowhere in Between’ does exactly what the-one-before-the-last should, creating a sense of unease with its fragile vocals and distorted keys. All that is left is Segilola’s ‘Paint The Way’, which I can only describe as the perfect track for a rainy day.
And with that, Bubblers Eleven comes to a close, but the calm that it curated still lingers.
Brownswood Bubblers 11 is out now via Brownswood Recordings imprint, available in CD format from Bandcamp, and digitally on iTunes.
