Audio Texture
Calling all funk loving space cadets this is a killer slo-mo, synth heavy chugging version of Billy Cobham's "Stratus", straight in the show...
Sam Tweaks
Nice chill-hop synths Billy Cobham's stratus - heavily sampled baseline (see massive attack safe from harm) which only adds to it's allure. Imagine Jean Jaques Perrey was born and raised in Bristol.
The Modified Man duo announced their arrival last year with a remix for legendary Fela Kuti collaborator Dele Sosimi. Eschewing sampling elements of the original, they instead reinterpreted passages from scratch with their extensive synth collection and beloved analogue gear, surrounding it in a deep, broken-soul sound.
With Stratus, their first release on Albert’s Favourites, the south London record label they co-founded with Jonny Drop, Modified Man continue to pay homage to their influences.
Acknowledging the analytical commitment to re-interpreting soul-jazz classics demonstrated by Marc Mac (4Hero), the uncompromising digital punch of broken-beat godfathers Bugz In The Attic, the canny ear for hypnotic loops mastered by Massive Attack and, of course, the futuristic, experimental brilliance of drum-legend Billy Cobham.
Modified Man’s cover of Stratus straddles decades, finding a common line that brings it entirely up-to-date. By surrounding themselves in tapes, synths, microphones and reverb boxes, they’ve sought, not to wallow in nostalgia, but to grab some physical, real energy from solid objects, each with their own personalities, making a declaration about the future. One of physical expression in a digital era.
Though Modified Man is predominantly a synth and keyboards project, the duo are extensive multi-instrumentalists.
Dave Koor is a prolific keys player as part of The Expansions, and in the live bands of Connie Constance, Andrew Ashong and The Gene Dudley Group with fellow label founder Jonny Drop. Adam Scrimshire cut his teeth with solo project Scrimshire (a Gilles Peterson, Don Letts and Huey Morgan favourite) as well as running the Wah Wah 45s record label, home to Dele Sosimi, The Milk, Resonators and Paper Tiger. Both love playing soul records in public and trying to count to free jazz.
Expect Stratus (part one and two) as a part of a 12” mini-album this spring, developing ideas shown here in a distinctly more up-tempo direction, without sacrificing any of the cosmic, bubbling-synth sounds that have been emanating from their south London studio over the past 18 months.
credits
released February 10, 2016
Written and composed by Billy Cobham
Performed, arranged and produced by Modified Man
Like so many others, this came like a bolt out of the blue and, even though it's well before payday, I had to have this astonishing album on vinyl to prove it exists. The feel of the tunes makes me feel like the Impressions do, Curtis Mayfield, the big spaces and instinctive horns and stuff drifting in and out. Great grooves and I can see lots of ghosts nodding along to this with big smiles on their faces. At last! Anthony Cottrell