4th December 2020: Out today – ‘Analects’ by Brotherly – available on 2x Gatefold LP 180g Limited Edition White & Electric Blue Vinyl, CD & DL & tune in to Jamie Cullum this week to hear brand-new track ‘The Code’
“The palette is wide and it’s refreshing to hear and see Brotherly get a second bite of the cherry – they certainly know how to hit the sweet spot.” – Blues & Soul Magazine
Available on Double LP / CD / DL: here
BROTHERLY, the brain-child of Anna Stubbs & Rob Mullarkey, have issued their music for the first time on vinyl…
From today, you can get Brotherly’s music on Double Gatefold Colored vinyl (180 gram) with insert-poster, complete with lyrics for all tracks and liner notes by Kevin Le Gendre. 16 total tracks of Brotherly’s best-loved songs, including three reworked classics with new guest appearances by Donny McCaslin, Kaidi Tatham and Jason Rebello. Excitingly, this ‘greatest hits’ edition includes an exclusive, brand new, never-before heard Brotherly track ‘The Code.’ Also available on CD (with liner notes & 12-page booklet) and Digital Album.
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
Building a bridge between jazz and experimental dance music, Brotherly were one of the most creative bands to emerge from Britain in the mid 2000s. Vocalist-pianist Anna Stubbs and multi-instrumentalist Rob Mullarkey studied jazz at the Leeds College of Music and Guildhall School of Music, and then became immersed in London’s club culture, particularly the broken beat scene that grew around nights such as Co-Op. Brotherly’s 2005 debut single ‘Put It Out’ reflected that influence, and in 2007 the duo released a full length album, One Sweet Life, followed in 2010 by Find First Light, and a collection of their standout tracks is now issued for the first time on limited edition vinyl (and CD/DL) as Analects.
It has one previously unreleased track, ‘The Code’, and three reworked tracks with new guests Donny McCaslin, Kaidi Tatham and Jason Rebello. The stellar cast list for the material written by Anna and Rob makes it clear that the duo has always had an interest in many rather than one school. Keyboardist Tatham and vocalist Eska were key fixtures in broken beat, pianist Rebello has been a major name in British jazz since the mid ‘80s, rapper Ty, who smartly sidestepped lyrical and musical cliché, was a fearless trailblazer of UK hip-hop, and McCaslin is a versatile, dynamic American saxophonist known for his work with Maria Schneider and David Bowie among others.
At the heart of Analects is Anna and Rob’s fine compositions and production. The vocabulary they developed had all the intricacy one would expect of musicians with a background in improvisation, but they were still mindful of how a song could be transformed by the kind of outré sequencing, engineering and mixing that had raised the temperature at clubs.
Brotherly created musically ambitious work that was also relevant to the club culture of the day, acknowledging the advent of many producer-driven movements from which improvising artists could learn. ‘System’, with its bulldozing bassline, sprightly theme and ethereal flute, brilliantly sets out their stall while the combination of an African-slanted 6/8 pulse and Kaidi Tatham’s piping keys make ‘Raindown’ compellingly hypnotic. Jason Rebello’s graceful acoustic piano brings a light-as-a-feather sensitivity to ‘World In A World’ while the heavy duty funky strut of ‘Skin Deep’ is a teasing backdrop for commentary on vain superficiality, a topical piece in a selfie-obsessed society.
Then again Anna’s telling lyrics on ‘Searching’ (I’m looking for something else/Trying to transcend myself) or ‘The Code’ (He’s the world’s biggest story/The story of matriarchal glory/She bore him a child/This child she had to hide) are borne of a willingness of address subjects as varied as the search for individuality and the cryptic, mind bending backstory of The Da Vinci Code. ‘One Sweet Life’, with its heartbeat-like riff and pithy refrain (To do your thing/to sink or swim) has taken on great poignancy given the recent passing of featured guest Ty, and the sense of general vulnerability created by the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. This new meaning underlines the fact that Brotherly’s music now stands as an invaluable glue between a past of a more carefree state of mind and a present of universal angst. All the more reason to celebrate the second coming of a band and their music that has fully stood the test of time.
Kevin Le Gendre (author of Don’t Stop The Carnival: Black Music In Britain Volume 1)
A Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Session Of The Year Nominee
“Brotherly is an amazingly eclectic mix of rhythm, deep harmony and musicality…
I’ve always looked to them for a source of inspiration!”
– Jordan Rakei
“Can’t beat Brotherly for amazing wonky changes of feel coupled with
that bonkers and brilliant drum programming.”
– Anna Meredith
