Legendary leftfield jazz-rap-funk outfit The Herbaliser have been forging classic downtempo tracks for true hip-hop heads since forming in the ’90s. In 2012, the outfit self-released their brilliant seventh album, There Were Seven, and they’ve been supporting the masterpiece by playing a steady stream of live gigs.
Always ones to take their music to the proverbial next level whenever possible, the band handed over their songs to a group of talented producers. The experiment serves as the basis for a splendid remix collection featuring re-rubs by upstarts and established maestros such as T Power Lopez, 2econd Class Citizen, Colman Brothers and others.
Have a listen to their remix album here and find out below which artists are currently in heavy rotation for co-founder Jake Wherry (pictured on the right).
The Herbaliser’s There Were Seven – Remixes is out via Department H on June 30.
1. Jorun Bombay
Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Jorun has been hard at work promoting and making hip-hop since the 1980s. In the past few years he’s released a series called Instrumentals You Never Got, which started off with him making an instrumental of LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells.” He then moved on to recreate versions of tracks from tapes of New York parties from the late ’70s/early ’80s, releasing them as the Rock the Discotek series. He’s also released his own productions which feature various rappers. All in all, his work his funky as hell and definitely worth checking out.
2. Hugo Kant
A French friend recommended that I checked Hugo out. He’s from France and plays the flute as well as producing beats. He’s been very busy in the past few years, remixing tracks by people like Zero 7, Bonobo, C2C and a small band from Twickenham called The Herbaliser. We are about to release an album of remixes of There Were Seven and we did a remix swap with Hugo — we remixed his track “In the Woods” and in turn he remixed our track “March of the Dead Things.”
3. James Morton
James is based in Bristol and plays with Fred Wesley and Pee Wee Ellis, as well as being the alto sax player in The Herbaliser Band. He has just been made Music Ambassador for Bristol and these are clips from his new album. It’s very much in the style of the J.B.s but with some contemporary touches thrown in too.
4. The Gaff
From Canada, we met The Gaff on one of our many Canadian tours. He’s similar in age to [Herbaliser co-founder] Ollie [Teeba] and myself and seriously this guy knows his shit. An avid record collector, collaborator and producer, his tracks are guaranteed to rock any dance floor. This is a reworking he did of one of my favorite 45s, Hank Ballard’s “How You Gonna get Respect?”
5. Muneshine
Another Canadian rapper and producer. Muneshine is one half of Twin Peaks with Ghettosocks. Together they are featured on three tracks on There Were Seven. This track features Shuanise, a singer from London who has just the most angelic voice, new school soul at its best.