Andrew Duke - Famous EP

It's truly an honour to present this EP from shadowy underground music hero Andrew Duke. Running his weekly radio mix-show show continuously for almost three decades, the Canadian DJ and producer's commitment to the cause simply cannot be questioned. Having released his own brand of mercurial, original music since '93, the title 'Famous' could be viewed as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Andrew's relative anonymity despite his frankly intimidating resume... Though he's clearly too busy curating and creating great music to worry about such things. First coming to the attention of Colour and Pitch through his dedicated support of our releases on the radio show, we were simply bowled over by the 'Famous EP' when it first arrived in our inbox.

Title track 'Famous' features Chicago spoken word artist Keter Darker, whose voice falls somewhere between Maxi Jazz and Gil Scott Heron in its languid, atmospheric delivery. Hypnotic conga rhythms and bleak synths give a sense of futility to the repeated lyrical refrain; 'everyone wants to be famous'. 'Gonna Make It (Second Nature)' plays with broken vocal snippets over slow-motion rhythms, building gently toward a spine-tingling, chord-laden, afro-tinged and utterly addictive groove. Referencing the political strategy of appeasement, the brilliantly titled 'Bread & Circus (Blind Nation)' moves the EP into late-night club territory, with techno influenced percussion and jazzy rhodes chords providing a sleazy backdrop for more of Keter Darker's powerful wordplay. At Andrew's personal request, Orlando's electronic explorer Q-Burns Abstract Message closes out the EP with a truly special reworking of 'Famous'. Expanding on the unique new sound he employed whilst remixing Sumsuch's track 'Shine' for Colour and Pitch last year, Q-BAM's version of 'Famous' is tense, uplifting, deeply cinematic and pretty much indescribable: just listen.

'Andrew Duke creates music that sounds like it has a reason for living' (The Wire, UK)

Available via Traxsource | iTunes | Beatport | Juno | Spotify