The first taste of a forthcoming full-length album from Moodymann, which will be his first in four years (feels way longer though). Drop the needle on Side A and step inside KDJ’s grandfather’s jazz club: “Pitch Black City Reunion” finds Kenny & co. in a serious jazz / funk ( / house?) groove, but like the majority of the man’s work, it could just be a sample (we hope not though). Side B (“Got Me Coming Back Rite Now”) finds Kenny doing his thing with the MPC (“A lot of people you go home, you fuck your wife. A lot of people go home, you cut your grass. I go home and I fuck that motherfucking MPC all fucking night”), rolling out a swirling patchwork of samples, spacey pads and a low-slung groove for the freaks, with Amp Fiddler hooking up a sultry autotuned vocal over Kenny’s signature ad libs. It’s a promising teaser for what’s sure to be one of 2018’s most-played-in-the-Lab albums. Recommended. Also please stop calling and asking if Moodymann shaved his head, we don’t know (we hope not though).

• 12" pic sleeve
• music label: KDJ 2018

reviewed by big dumb man 04/2018