Little Beat More label main man Woxow ponders the pedigree collapse paradox on new EP How Many Ancestors Do We Have? with Raashan Ahmad, Azeem and Reggae Roast’s Natty Campbell providing vocals. ‘Pedigree collapse’? Yeah – you know – the idea we all share a common ancestor. You see where this is going right? Silence the violence, increase the peace – we’re all family! A fantastic idea in theory but we’ve all had to spend more time than we’d like with certain relatives, right? Still, the spacey, jazzy and reggae vibes on this do have remarkable properties as an aural emollient for fraught social situations. The Natty Campbell-featuring opener Solid As A Rock is a case in point. A double-bass-powered trip-hoppy affair with double bass, it’s so chilled the vocals don’t even begin until nearly two minutes through its nearly six minute length. Next up is the sparsely layered Afro-jazzy hip-hop of Blueprint featuring Rashaan Ahmad which again is spacey enough to keep all the heads in the room nodding. Admittedly, the Azeem-featuring hip-hop of Enough Is Enough is a somewhat more lively but what’s a family gathering without a bit of friction, eh? Remixes come from Deela, Koralle, Paulo Baldini and Luke Beats.
(Out 9 June on Little Beat More)