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12"
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LAD 067EP
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The Cobblestone Jazz trio team up with kindred spirit The Mole for a double single of cascading grooves and stretched-out club burners. It's been over 20 years since the first Cobblestone Jazz EP, and Danuel Tate, Mathew Jonson, and Tyger Dhula continue to unravel expectations, creating outside-the-box rhythms and shifting, explorative musical structures for the dancers. It's an approach that has seen them play countless shows at festivals and clubs around the world, while reinventing their style on the fly, and whipping up a timeless blend of classic and modern sounds. For this single they're joined by friend, bandmate and hypnotic discotheque collagist The Mole. "Hip Waders" comes from one of the group's long studio sessions, and this gem of a jam was laid to tape after a couple days of playing. Usually, the group likes to set the studio up first (tuning the room, picking their instruments and setting up the patch bay), before exploring and recording musical ideas over the rest of the week. Although bouncing along at 120bpm, "Hip Waders" still strides into deep waters, courtesy of jazzy, tremolo chords that ripple across its skittish electronic groove, which constantly unfolds across a full 13 minutes. In contrast, the B-side isn't so meditative, but rather more classically arranged, and sprinkled with some live passes over the top. "Does Yo Mama Know" ups the tempo and rolls along on a broken, garage rhythm, before a sweet descending organ progression pulls the pulse into tighter focus. The title is in fact a nod to the Hollywood club that West Coast house pioneer Marques Wyatt did in the mid '90s -- all about the music and sound, no lights except for those of the 1200s, and a killer vibe. In this way, the 12" is split along true Cobblestone fault lines -- a contrast of long-winding and concise, macro and micro, vintage yet (re)inventive. Cobblestone Jazz and The Mole find the pocket as they always do: those coordinates somewhere between the dance music of the past and the present, while adding a twist to create new, forward-looking versions.
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12"
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IIWII 016EP
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Canadian trio Cobblestone Jazz debuted on Itiswhatitis Recordings in 2002, and now return to the label for the first time since 2006 with arguably their most musical and expansive release, recorded over a three-day period in 2013 and edited in the winter of 2014. The 11-minute "Northern Lights" features tight gated keys layered with complex harmonies and soaring pad swells. "Drawn from the Side of Crime" is another twisting musical journey, running just shy of 13 minutes with a meditative bassline rolling underneath for the duration and hints of a beautiful modal Rhodes line teasing throughout the arrangement.
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12"
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WRL 011EP
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These two tracks came out of recording sessions by the Modern Deep Left Quartet in Mathew Jonson's Berlin studio. Cobblestone Jazz here is comprised of Jonson on SH101 bass, Danuel Tate on Fender Rhodes and Tyger Dhula on drums. The A side, "Before This," has plenty of fiery Rhodes and shuffled hats to compliment the congas, synth, and snaking bassline, while the flip's "Before That" is decidedly more subdued and relaxed, with a mellower Rhodes pass and stripped down drums.
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12"
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WRL 009EP
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The third installment in the Cobblestone Jazz 12" series brings two more tracks. On the A-side we find "Who's Future?" -- full of bubbling, elastic bass and deep chord swells, it's a laidback affair with a snappy groove to push it along. On the flip is "Across The Nation," a stripped-out and up-tempo electro jam with crisp breaks and gated pads. All the elements mingle together to create a thick bed of future funk.
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12"
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WRL 008EP
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Cobblestone Jazz are back with their second installment in their Wagon Repair series. "Lunar Lander" is a spaced-out zero-gravity jam -- its sparse and jittery beats complimented by some sweet key stabs and a thick and burly analog bass line. "Your Life (You're Life)" is an uptempo slugfest of crunchy beats and a driving bass line. Both tunes were recorded live in the studio and have been culled and edited for your mixing pleasure (A-side by Tyger Dhula and B-side by Danuel Tate).
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12"
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WRL 007EP
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"Memories (From Where We Are)" celebrates the first of a series of 12" releases that will come out on Wagon Repair over the course of 2011/12. The outcome of a Berlin jam session last fall, Cobblestone Jazz incorporated a Fender Rhodes, vocoder and SH-101 to make up the core voicing of the tracks. The track was mixed live with no prior sequencing arrangement and then cut by The Mole into two sublime edits.
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12"
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WAG 060EP
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Wagon Repair presents a teaser 12" in anticipation of Cobblestone Jazz's second album. "Chance Dub" features a gentler sound -- deeper, smoother, maybe more reflective. A lone chord progression leads the way, and around it builds swelling synth pads, sub-bass pressure, sprightly bass sequences, and high-precision rhythm programming. Mixed and recorded in real time, the track is always evolving and in motion, without being busy. This is driving, sensual, properly analog house -- the way it was meant to be.
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