UK production heroes and Ninja Tune founders Matt Black and Jonathan More, AKA Coldcut, turn in an incredibly atmospheric, dubby, cinematic reworking of ‘5 Seconds’ by electronica maestro Felix Laband, with all the genre-hopping brilliance you might expect from the veteran pair. From their origins as “the first Brit artists to really get hip-hop’s class-cutup aesthetic,” they introduced rap to ravers, creating a heady blend of hip-hop production aesthetics and proto-acid house grooves, and became a precursor for scenes as diverse as electronica, breakbeat, ambient and baggy. They soon took the pop world by storm, introducing Yazz and Lisa Stansfield to the world, and producing both artists’ most memorable hits. They chose their collaborations based on a shared, renegade musical spirit, rather than a sound, and in so doing, they created sounds unlike anyone else, and somehow found room at the table for Queen Latifah, Mark E. Smith and Jello Biafra’ (SPIN). More recently, Coldcut have made interactive, cut n’ paste installations for an exhibition of work by one of their own precursors, William S Burroughs.
When their thrilling, experimentally minded productions fell out of favour with major label, carbon-copy conservatism, the duo founded Ninja Tune, which turns 25 in 2015. With a remit simply to release the future gazing records that excited them most, the label is still doing the same exactly that – a quarter of a century later.
Coldcut are as restlessly creative as ever. Having launched their Ninja Jamm app in 2012, 400,000 downloads later it has become a sophisticated instrument the duo use live alongside other software inventions. Coldcut’s long term relationship with Greenpeace continues with DJ sets for the organisation at Glastonbury for the last three years. Also they’ve become go to DJs for Avaaz’s huge climate change marches in London, and Paris COP In the same vein. Coldcut’s long-standing political art activism finding itself ever relevant in these turbulent times.
Stream the track HERE
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