I really liked Mark De Clive-Lowe’s Six Degrees album on Universal Jazz from 2000. But - like good wine - Mark gets better with time and his new album for ABB Soul, Tide’s Arising, is just a killer. After a release in autumn 2004 in Japan this album finally sees a release in the rest of the world. Full of fresh, tight and funky beats this is a dream for anyone who’s into the West London school of broken beats/nu jazz like I.G. Culture, Phil Asher or Bugz In The Attic.
Unlike his contemporaries Mark’s new album isn’t just the usual broken beats you might expect, the title song may be the most conventional song of this genre here. Compared to his Universal release Mark has made quite a remarkable progression. Some songs are heavily influenced by 70s/80s electro funk by the likes of George Clinton or Bootsy Collins. The longer I listen to songs like Slide, Traveling or Syndrome the more I think that the music presented here is the evolution of what once was known as P-Funk. This is a very welcome change from all the other more or less house/latin/afro based uptempo stuff available at the moment. And it will make your body move and hopefully prepare us all for the mothership.
Thanks to contributions by the impressive singers Bembé Segué and Abdul Shyllon there’s also a great portion of soul present (just listen to Quintessential, Heaven or 4.Y.V). If that’s not enough for your variety you also get some weird, spacy sound effects on State Of The Mental plus a 70s fusion soul-jazz resurrection (Pino + Mashi).
Tide’s Arising is a much needed breath of fresh air in today’s music scene.
Tracklisting of Tide’s Arising: 1. Masina’s World/ 2. Slide/ 3. Traveling - feat. Capitol A & Bembe Segue/ 4. State of the Mental - feat. Bembe Segue/ 5. Quintessential - feat. Abdul Shyllon/ 6. Syndrome - feat. Bembe Segue + Lain Gray/ 7. Pino + Mashi/ 08. Tide’s Arising - feat. Abdul Shyllon/ 09. Sila’s Theme/ 10. Traveling (interlude)/ 11. Heaven - feat. Bembe Segue/ 12. 4.Y.V. - feat. Abdul Shyllon/ 13. Heaven Part II - feat. Bembe Segue/ 14. Bonus track | released 2005 by ABB Soul
For more infos visit antipodeanrecords.net, markdeclivelowe.net, abbsoul.com and read an interview with Mark here.
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