South London collective Speakers Corner Quartet release highly collaborative debut ‘Further Out Than The Edge’
The highly-talented South London ensemble, Speakers Corner Quartet, who got their start in 2006 as the house band at the legendary Brixton spoken word/hip hop night Speakers Corner, and later as a backing group for some of today’s most forward-thinking artists (Sampha, Kae Tempest, Tirzah, Dean Blunt, the late MF DOOM, and Lianne La Havas), have stepped out on their own with a brilliant debut album featuring an A-list of special guest collaborators, titled Further Out Than The Edge.
This incredible 13-track recording spans a lot of territory, blending together soulful grooves, jazz-funk, hip hop, cosmic hypnotic tones and more, resulting in a sound that captures the cutting-edge spirit of today’s UK music scene.
The quartet features Biscuit on flute, Kwake Bass on drums and percussion, Raven Bush on violin, and Peter Bennie on bass, with members also contributing synths, production and more. Every track on the record also features a special guest artist, which seems to somewhat influence each songs’ overall direction to a degree. The remarkable list of collaborators on the session include Tirzah, Kelsey Lu, Shabaka Hutchings, Coby Sey, Sampha, Kae Tempest, Mica Levi, Joe Armon-Jones, Lawfawndah, Léa Sen, and more.
Superb from start to finish, Further Out Than The Edge is an impressive genre-defying debut that showcases the expansiveness of this boundary-pushing collective. With that being said, we might only still be scratching the surface of what’s to come from this skillful unit. Highly recommended!
Speakers Corner Quartet — ‘Further Out Than The Edge’
(OTIH Records)
- On Grounds (feat. Coby Sey)
- Acute Truth (feat. Kelsey Lu)
- fix (feat. Tirzah)
- Wavelet (feat. Confucius MC & Joe Armon-Jones)
- Dreaded ! (feat. Léa Sen)
- Geronimo Blues (feat. Kae Tempest)
- Can We Do This? (feat. Sampha)
- Soapbox Soliloquy (feat. LEILAH)
- Hither Green (feat. James Massiah)
- Round Again (feat. Tawiah)
- Behind The Sun (feat. Lafawndah & Trustfall)
- Shabz Needs Sun (feat. Shabaka Hutchings)
- Karainagar (feat. Mica Levi)
