Blacknuss (E)
Swedish Delight
As the last beams of summer sun fades away into frostbitten afternoons and flame-coloured fragments of autumn leaves, producer and drummer Martin Jonsson, the mastermind behind the Swedish r&b collective Blacknuss, is sitting in his small Viking Studio at Frejgatan, Stockholm, giving the finishing touches to the group’s third album, aptly named 3.
Four years after the retro-scented debut, this time it’s all about hyper-modern r&b, obviously related to producers such as Timbaland and Babyface, but with a completely new finish. Arrangements that are at once strangely alike and completely different from anything that Blacknuss has ever done before. The soul-drenched groove stands firm, but the band is further away than ever from the goatees and hemp-sneakers of the early nineties.
Rest assured, though, that a total update was exactly what we were expecting from a band that won’t ever let them-selves get labelled as playing any specific sort of music. A magnificent musician’s collective that has been moving unimpededly between genres such as funk, jazz, disco, soul, hip hop, afro, acid jazz and modern dance music during the past ten years. A group that doesn’t break the past to pieces, but breaks it down to something completely new - new rhythms, new beats, new sounds
Best soul musicians
The best live band in Sweden, that has functioned as a creative free zone for the best soul musicians in the country. A project in which they have been allowed to unplug their studiomusician brains and instead concentrate on the first reason they made the black musical heritage become their entire lives. The groove. The rhythm. The soul. In short, Blacknuss has been synonymous with everything that has been funky, soulful and swinging in Sweden during the past decade.
This is because of the fact that Blacknuss has done so much more than just a new album, it’s a uniquely Scandinavian version of the otherwise so often inbred, American r&b sound. The tunes are in the same vein as those of TLC, Mary J. Blige and Missy Elliot; the same sort of bass lines can be found here, as can the samples, the firmly programmed drums, the rap, and the wailing vocals
You’ve probably even listened to the Rahsaan Roland Kirk-record from the seventies that named both the club and its house band, and Blacknuss’ debut album Made In Sweden (containing the single It Should Have Been You), as well as its follow-up Allstars (with the hit single Dinah).
cool organ
So let’s forget about the history lesson and look to the future instead, as Blacknuss isn’t that gang of jazzy kids in glasses and corduroys playing cool organ grooves at Fasching anymore. Blacknuss is the smooth constellation behind 3 - an entirely new definition of contemporary soul.
Having left the retro-scented party funk of the acid jazz era behind, today the party they invite us to is based on well-polished beats deluxe. Listening to the first single from the album, the Brandy/Mase-tinged Don’t Break My Heart (featuring David’s Daughters, Mic Mulee, ADL & Swing), is enough to tell that Blacknuss is both groovier and neater than ever before.
With rarely qualified co-workers such as Mattias Torell, David Nyström, Goran Kajfes, Per ”Ruskträsk” Johansson, Magnus Lindgren, ADL (who not only raps, but also sings on 3), and Swing in prominent positions, it actually would have been quite surprising had the compositions not been music for tomorrow, glittering beats for an eclectic and enthusiastic audience that knows how to appreciate new angles of approaching the world of r&b. Moreover, the album contains loads of exciting guest artists such as David’s Daughters, Mic Mulee, Jocelyn Mathieu, Kerima, Swahili and Nai-Jee-Ria
Blacknuss is back
Allstars, it isn’t until now that they throw themselves out into their own take on the modern, urban r&b surge.
Sort of an exponential update of the constellation’s biggest success so far, Dinah, with Stephen Simmonds, ADL,Swing and Mic Mulee at the microphone.
This new album contains no less than 13 songs that have been put together more beautifully and more lovingly than ever, been wrapped up in comfortably relaxed tempos, and then given the best vocals to be found. A vitamin injection for dancefloors suffering from autumn depression. A carefree voyage through perfect soundscapes and groovy future funk. Blacknuss is back.
Source: http://www.blacknuss.com - Official website
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