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Basic Sketches For Beginners

Osunlade

Yoruba Records
YSD97D | 2020-06-05  
Before we begin talking any music, we hope that this message finds all of you well, safe and in health. These are unique times and we hope that you can find strength and solace in your loved ones and on those things that you truly care for. We are all in this together, and we hope this new offering from Yoruba Records can be of some comfort in these trying times.

It took six years for Osunlade to release latest opus ‘Aché’ (YSR09, 2019).

Well, summer 2020 is here and Yoruba Records is proud to present ‘Basic Sketches For Beginners’, the brand new album by Osunlade. It’s also his first full-length house album since his 2011 release ‘Pyrography’.

For Osunlade “‘Basic Sketches For Beginners’ is a simple thought of a variety of dance floor vibes. It’s more a poke at the current state of the dance music craze and those who are part of it. Not a diss, but more so a thing of understanding where this all comes from. While the business is greater than ever, the music sucks as a whole and those who benefit rarely are musicians or producers, but kids who learned the skill of DJ’n and social media hype, whereas their music suffers (if u can even call it that).”

Amnesia is a partial or total loss of memory. It is also the name of the first song on this album. This slow, funk burner features Osunlade repeating to himself and to the listener the word “Amnesia”. It’s an inconvenient truth on dance music’s current state of affairs, a scene that has completely disconnected itself to its roots.

The Purple one has always weaved himself into the music of Osunlade. ‘Don’t Hang Up’ is one of the more obvious ways you can listen to this. Taking a sample from the sensual funk of Vanity Six’s ‘If A Girl Answers (Don’t Hang Up)’, this track brings out a joy and playfulness we rarely get to see from him musically.

‘Basic Sketches For Beginners’ is an album of perspectives. Of both inspiration and perspiration. Take ‘Auto Machine’ and ‘Ole’ for example. There are certain nights, in certain cities, with certain crowds that need something a little darker. Something with a little more acid, and a little more tech. Any music Osunlade has done with this direction has always had the characteristics of what we have come to know as a Yoruba Soul production. ‘Auto Machine’ and ‘Ole’ however sound like basic sketches (pun intended) of this sound. Those who have seen him rock a dance floor know that these vibes have become part of his late night arsenal.

Doing a complete 180, ‘Saudek’ brings the jazz and the swing to accompany the kick and the bass. The energy tunes in to those late summer night frequencies found in ‘Aquarian Moon’. Osunlade has always been a master of incorporating live instrumentation and musicality into the electronic world, and ‘Saudek’ is another prime example of how to flawlessly execute that marriage of both worlds.

‘Uh Huh’ is some of the most straight ahead house music we ever heard from Osunlade. This is not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all. Simplicity and heart is at the centre of Basic Sketches and this a continuation of that energy. This is heavy, sweaty, bring your baby powder four-on-the-floor house music.

‘Moon In Daylight’ and ‘Landfill’ offer some of the most introspective and inward dance moments of this album. The simple, sparse and emotional arrangements allow the soul to wander at ease. Both tracks are like a shower of stars under a pale moonlight.

Even though this is technically a house album, there is a serene quiet moment in the form of ‘OA-O2’. It’s a moment to catch our collective breath before we close out the proceedings with the final dance on ‘As If…’

‘Basic Sketches For Beginners’ is an album of moments. An album of simplicity, spontaneity and creating in the moment. Most importantly though, it’s an album of observation, of acknowledgement of the absurdity of it all.


Osunlade 'Basic Sketches For Beginners'

1. Amnesia
2. Don’t Hang Up
3. Feedbach
4. Auto Machine
5. Ole
6. Saudek
7. Moon In Daylight
8. Uh Huh
9. Landfill
10. OA-O2
11. As If…

Written & Produced by Osunlade
Recorded & Mixed @ Momma’s, St Louis & R2 Studios, London
Published by Yoruba Peoples Music (ASCAP) / Sony ATV Music
P&C 2020 Yoruba Records

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