“Being old bastards, vinyl was the way we bought, listened, and learned music. When CDs came out, I remember a TV program in the UK called Tomorrow’s World. They tested CDs’ durability, claiming that you could ‘eat your dinner off them.’ Fast forward not too far in the future and our CDs were skipping and sticking all over the place.
I think it’s safe to say that from the word ‘go’ I HATED CDs and their nasty, real (i.e. way too bright) sound. So yes, I think you can see the passion already. My ambition as a teenager was to be immortalized between the grooves of a vinyl record, not on the shiny surface of a crappy CD, with its plastic, shattering, poor-quality case and flimsy printed booklet. Our first release, Keb Darge presents The New Mastersounds, was pressed on vinyl, Keb being one of the world’s most renowned vinyl funk and soul collectors. Ambition complete.
At this point, we are releasing our 11th studio album, 10 of which are released on vinyl (the 2nd was not, against my wishes, complaints, and now, smuggness), plus many 7” vinyl singles that I’ve lost count of. In making this new album, there was a definite anti-digital approach. We wanted every process to be analog—it didn’t touch a single microchip, and I’m extremely happy with the results!”
—Eddie Roberts, The New Mastersounds
The latest track from The New Mastersounds—its video getting an exclusive premiere here at TVD—shoots us back in time. The Leeds band’s “In the Middle,” recorded at a Nashville studio called Welcome to 1979, takes aim at something recorded 10 years before that.
“In the Middle” (then divided into parts one and two) first appeared on the indispensable, all-instrumental James Brown album The Popcorn in 1969. The New Mastersounds’ arrangement picks up from the smooth cover by ace jazz guitarist Grant Green two years later from his own Blue Note album, Shades of Green.
But Green never quite jumped into the stratosphere the way The New Mastersounds’ Eddie Roberts does on this inspired version, egged on by the solid Pete Shand on bass and the energetic snap of Simon Allen’s drums. The sizzle of Joe Tatton’s keyboards are icing on the proverbial cake.
The band formed in the late ’90s at Roberts’ bar The Cooker in the English town made famous by the live Who album. It’s been churning out a tasty retro funk sound ever since using a variety of musicians, sometimes a horn section, and an array of guest players and singers (including Pee Wee Ellis, the one time Famous Flame who co-wrote this instrumental that deserves to be better known.)
While we present it here first for you, “In the Middle” will be part of the band’s new album The Nashville Session, a 10-track collection due out April 22. It was multi-tracked live to one-inch tape in a single evening session at Welcome to 1979, then mixed down to quarter-inch stereo to later be cut direct to vinyl lacquers.
Only 1,000 copies of the vinyl exclusive will be released by the band, who embark on their latest U.S. tour April 13 in Live Oak, Fla., and continues with multi-night stops at Brooklyn Bowl April 14-16 and in New Orleans (where they recorded their last album) at the Joy Theatre April 29 and 30. Festivals from Mountain Jam in Hunter, N.Y., and Arise in Loveland, Colo. follow, where the groove of “In the Middle” will set just the right tone.
The New Mastersounds Tour Dates
4/13 – Live Oak, FL – Wannee Festival
4/14 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
4/15 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
4/16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl (early show)
4/16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
4/17 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Wolf Den
4/19 – Portland, ME – Port City Music Hall
4/20 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
4/21 – Fairfield, CT – Warehouse
4/22 – Burlington, VT – Higher Ground
4/23 – Schuylkill Haven, PA – Some Kind of Jam Festival
4/24 – Morgantown, WV – Mainstage
4/26 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry
4/27 – Greensboro, NC – The Blind Tiger
4/28 – Atlanta, GA – Terminal West
4/29-4/30 – New Orleans, LA – Joy Theatre
5/4 – Lexington, KY – Cosmic Charlies
5/5 – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
5/6 – Columbus, OH – Park Street Saloon
5/7 – Nashville, TN – Exit/In
5/27-5/29 – Chillicothe, IL – Summer Camp
6/2-6/5 – Hunter, NY – Mountain Jam
6/23-6/26 – Rothbury, MI – Electric Forest
6/30-7/3 – Quincy, CA – High Sierra Music Festival
8/5-8/7 – Loveland, CO – Arise Music Festival
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PHOTO: JIM MIMNA
