{"product_id":"sleep-heavy","title":"Sleep Heavy (LP w\/ download code)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJabu - Sleep Heavy\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBlackest Ever Black presents Sleep Heavy, the debut album of broken-hearted, downtempo R\u0026amp;B\/street-soul and supremely atmospheric, introspective electronics from Jabu: a trio comprised of vocalist\/lyricists Alex Rendall and Jasmine Butt, and producer Amos Childs.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe group was born out of Bristol's Young Echo collective: an ecosystem unto itself which has birthed and nurtured a number of other notable soundsystem-rooted projects and artists to date including Kahn \u0026amp; Neek, Sam Kidel, Ishan Sound, Ossia, Asda, Chester Giles (the title Sleep Heavy comes from a Giles poem) and Killing Sound (Childs with Kidel and Vessel).\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eJabu's previous 7' singles, though arresting, barely hinted at the level of accomplishment and emotional heft that Sleep Heavy delivers. It's a future Bristol classic with a universal resonance, with songs that are highly personal but deeply relatable, and tripped-out, time-dissolving sound design that both haunts and consoles. It is, first and foremost, a meditation on grief, on loss, making sense of separation and death; but it also looks forward to what might come after the aftermath: healing, acceptance, the chance to begin again.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChilds is one of the most gifted producers of his generation and his work here, grounded in hip-hop but floating free, is a thing of sustained wonder: crepuscular, melancholic - funereal, at times - subtly psychedelic and heavily dubwise, but always concise and purposeful. Stitched together from deep-dug and beautifully repurposed samples, it draws on influences from US R\u0026amp;B to Japanese art-pop minimalism - Mariah to Mariah Carey, if you will - and a rich seam of underground UK soul, boogie, DIY\/post-punk, library music and lovers rock; refining and reconstituting these inputs into powerfully immersive, emotionally ambiguous soundscapes as eloquent and engaging as they are understated and bottomlessly mysterious.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThere is also of course a distant connection to the Bristol blues of Smith \u0026amp; Mighty and the sultry urban gothic of Protection-era Massive Attack, but Jabu's orchestration of womb-like ambiences, cold synth tones and brittle beats feel entirely sui generis. They provide the perfect setting for Rendell's wounded, imploring and carefully weighted vocals, which are no less extraordinary: nodding to giants like Teddy Pendergrass and The Temptations in terms of phrasing and front-and-centre vulnerability, with something of The Associates'Billy Mackenzie in there too; defeated but defiant.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMeanwhile Jas's heavenly interventions, sometimes leading but more often parsed and layered into tremulous, gossamer abstraction, draw a line between the Catholic choral harmonies of her childhood and the ethereal, oceanic sweep of Cocteau Twins. Oceanic is the word: this is music to drown, and drown gratefully, in.By its end, Sleep Heavy's world-weariness is intact and scarcely diminished, but some light has been admitted, and is visible from the sea-floor. A chance, not a promise. Something to swim towards.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e--\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA1. Let Me Know 4:37\u003cbr\u003eA2. Tomb 1:24\u003cbr\u003eA3. Get To You 5:24\u003cbr\u003eA4. Fool If 4:45\u003cbr\u003eA5. Bones 1:50\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eB1. On 3:04\u003cbr\u003eB2. Searc 1:07\u003cbr\u003eB3. Wounds 3:46\u003cbr\u003eB4. Which Way 4:48\u003cbr\u003eB5. Lay You Down 2:48\u003cbr\u003eB6. Give 2:30\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jabu","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43448122999008,"sku":"BLACKESTLP016","price":14.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/5988\/9376\/products\/Jabu-SleepHeavy.jpg?v=1664021262","url":"https:\/\/spectrumcityshop.pro\/products\/sleep-heavy","provider":"Spectrum City","version":"1.0","type":"link"}