Released in August, this somehow this slipped through the net. I think, perhaps, because there was only ever a limited, UK-only vinyl promo. The major label Lady Blackbird signed to – BMG – priorities and push being with the album proper, Slang Spirituals, and that crossing over, rather than these excellent underground reworks. 

Parrot aka Crooked Man has taken 4 of the 11 tracks, plus the Labi Siffre cover that didn’t make the album, and radically reframed them. The pair had collaborated in the past as Athletes Of God, dropping Randy Crawford’s Don’t Wanna Be Normal in King Tubby / Dr Satan’s echo chamber, so it was a given that the concept would be a winner. The legendary Sheffield producer applying his trademark sound, one that’s super stripped back, but rich with black and electronic music history. Machined, powerful, but soulful. 

Lady B’s vocals are reverb-ed and ethereal, yet still packed with emotion. The sonic separation, in fact, the productions’ bottomless depth, seems only to heighten the songs’ sensations. Drawing listeners in. Trapping dancers within them. 

Purify is a muted, moody, melancholic house moment. Dubby, clubby, bleepy, but mature and sophisticated. Its protagonist, older, wiser, and the piece epic without resorting to having you get your hands in the air. It Must Be Love is also dark and long. Shrouded in shadow, bumped by sub-bass, and punctuated by delayed handclaps. 

Tempos vary and Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled literally shakes to a seismic trip hop beat. The big gospel number still highly strung, but the orchestra offset by siren sound effects. When The Game Is Played On You, again, rides lower BPMs. In this case a fractured funk of shuffling snippets and gentle jazzy loops. 

Whatever His Name then comes in 2 parts. The first is a dub techno expanse, populated only by finger snaps and The Blackbird’s badass bluesy delivery. Haunting, hypnotic and easy to get lost in, it hits sort of like a soul flip of Basic Channel’s Rhythm & Sound reggae project. 

The second, instead, slowly generates a Goldfrapp-meets-Marc Bolan electro-glam boogie. Doing this with little more than an amazing voice and a pulverising, chugging, churning B-line. The vibe’s a tad devilish, demonic, voodoo in the spirt of Scream Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell On You, if out in orbit. Finishing the EP with a wild wall of echo – though which it disappears as if it were the gateway to another dimension.

…Written in Barcelona airport, on the long, long way home from Covenanza.

Digital is available directly from Foundation Music. The label has also very kindly just done a green vinyl repress.