Today we have the pleasure of introducing you to a piece of delightful cross-genre experimentation by not one, but two fantastic artists. This transatlantic collaboration is the second track produced by these two bands in just a short time. On the American side is the US collective NØISE (made up of Joe Cassidy, Shepard Fairey, John Goff, Merritt Lear) and hailing from the British city of Bristol is ground-breaking electro-hop duo Ree-Vo (rapper T. Relly with DJ / producer Andy Spaceland a.k.a. Andy Jenks). This is a dream within a dream for folks seeking truly original and brilliant experimentalism where electronica meets at least 5 other genres within the same song. Simply outstanding material all around.
The new NØISE track ‘Automatic (Ree-Vo Version)’ appears on Ree-Vo’s new limited edition 10″ vinyl, which also features collaborations with Object Object,Dälek and iconic industrial dancehall artist The Bug. Limited to 500 copies, the cover artwork is a tribute to Lee Perry. The 10” vinyl is being released together with Ree-Vo’s debut album ‘All Welcome on Planet Ree-Vo’, pressed on turquoise-blue gatefold vinyl (and also released on CD and digitally). The 10” release features orange vinyl. It can, however, also be obtained digitally – more music for lucky listeners.
Andy Spaceland explains, “NØISE had done a fantastic remix of our track ‘Spacebox’, and Shepard had done the very cool artwork for the 7”. Joe (Cassidy) got in contact and asked us to do a Ree-Vo version of the NØISE track ‘Automatic’, with Relly adding new vocals. The original is fantastic, incredible vocals and production. we just wanted to take it further down the bass music road. Relly’s vocals are perfect for it, we mixed it big and heavy, and Joe did the final master to add the sprinkle of magic. Shepard treated some photos to use in the video – we laid them over footage of Merrit and Relly. We couldn’t have been happier with the results of the collaboration”.
This album could only really have been made in one city steeped, as it is, in Bristol’s decades of less conventional hip-hop and bass music. Andy recorded, produced and mixed at Bristol’s Christchurch Studios, the home of Mezzanine-era Massive Attack. The Bristol music mavericks also recently reveals their fun and vibrant video for ‘Spacebox’,
“Our sound has the life blood of sound-system bass culture carried through veins of hip hop and rave. I describe it like that BCuz it’s a live and living thing not just a sound, though essentially it is Bristol Dirt,” says T. Relly.
As you might hope from the slow boiling cooker that is Bristol’s musical heritage, this track has evolved into a bass-heavy thunderstorm of dub, post-punk and hip hop. Merritt Lear’s original hypnotic, siren vocal is perfectly poised against Relly’s roll call of injustice and misinformation. It’s a contrast that could easily trip over itself but Andy Spaceland has had years of working on bass music, having been signed to Massive Attack’s ‘Melankolik’ label (and brought on board as their tour DJ), making an album with Horace Andy, and more recently working with The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart.
His musical roots run deep. After art school (where Brian Eno was his examiner), Andy Spaceland got involved in bass music with Bristol’s Static Sound System and a collaborative 12” with Rudy Tambala (AR Kane) as Sugarboat Vs Sufi. He has collaborated with Smith and Mighty, Elizabeth Fraser and Madonna, and has released music on Dj Die’s label Gutterfunk as White Bully. Andy is also part of 5 Billion in Diamonds with LA producer Butch Vig (Nirvana, Garbage).
T. Relly is Bristol hip-hop royalty – known in the community variously for his links to all of the city’s major club nights, his passion and support for the most disadvantaged (through his work with the youth and prison leavers), through to compering stages at St Paul’s Carnival and his seminal 2018 album with DJ Rogue ‘Let Them Know’. He collaborates with many crews including Innalife and Killer Crab Men.
Released via Dell’Orso Records and Southern Record Distributors (SRD), ‘All Welcome on Planet Ree-Vo’ can be ordered digitally and on vinyl at https://lnk.to/Ree-VoEDDA52 or on CD / digitally via Bandcamp at https://ree-vo1.bandcamp.com/album/all-welcome-on-planet-ree-vo. The new 4-track ‘Dial ‘R’ for Ree-Vo’ EP can also be downloaded at https://ree-vo1.bandcamp.com/album/dial-r-for-ree-vo-e-p
CREDITS
Written and performed by NØISE (Joe Cassidy, Shepard Fairey, John Goff, Merritt Lear)
Vocals by Merritt Lear and T.Relly
Remixed by Ree-Vo
Video by Andy Spaceland
Released by Dell’Orso Records – EDDA52LP/CD
Distributed by SRD
10″ EP TRACKLIST
A) Ree-Vo ‘Protein’ (The Bug remix)
Ree-Vo ‘We Go’ (Object Object remix)
AA) NØiSE ‘Automatic’ (Ree-Vo remix)
Ree-Vo ‘Groove With It’ (Deadverse remix) by Dälek
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