Toshio Matsuura Group: LOVEPLAYDANCE - 8 Scenes from The Floor (BROWNSWOOD RECORDINGS 2018)

On ‘LOVEPLAYDANCE’, legendary Tokyo DJ and producer Toshio Matsuura charts a new direction. Casting musical cornerstones in a fresh light, the TOSHIO MATSUURA GROUP features Tom Skinner (drummer for Sons of Kemet and Owiny Sigoma Band amongst others) as its musical director, as well as some of the UK’s most exciting jazz-influenced musicians. Drawing on years of surveying and curating different corners of music, Matsuura deftly combines this talented pool of players into one singular, wide-ranging album. 

A co-founder of Japan’s United Future Organisation (aka U.F.O.), this new record sees Matsuura reconnect with longstanding friend and collaborator Gilles Peterson. Releasing the album via Brownswood Recordings in the UK, it’s a continuation of a relationship which started as a bridge between London’s then-blossoming jazz scene and Tokyo’s new musical vanguard of the early ‘90s. This album continues that two-way dialogue between Japan and the UK. 

The project is focused on covers, putting classic or influential tracks in a new context, spanning a cross-section of Matsuura’s taste. On ‘Black Gold of the Sun’, Cuban vocalist Daymé Arocena fronts a new take on the Rotary Connection classic, along with a band – guided by Tom Skinner – that features her prodigious Havana-based players. Elsewhere, Byron Morris and Unity’s ‘Kitty Bey’, a Dingwalls classic, is knocked into a tight, high energy new shape (by a band that includes Yussef Dayes, Yazz Ahmed and Nubya Garcia.) 

The scope of the music reflects the breadth of Matsuura’s interests. It ranges from Bugges Wesseltoft’s Detroit-influenced, dancefloor-minded jazz, stretched out into a more meditative contemplation, to Flying Lotus’ LA-rooted, Brainfeeder beatmaking, translated from laptop-to-live, given a new, equally idiosyncratic lease of life. Elsewhere, Carl Craig’s iconic ‘At Les’ is taken in a looser direction, the overtones of euphoria cast in a different hue. 

They’re touchpoints which hint at interests in the different, diffuse corners of electronic music, and how they connect to jazz and improvisation. Coming to this project from the perspective of a DJ, producer and curator, it’s an album that shows his grasp of the bigger picture. This album shows him finding the threads which connect those different scenes together, exploring a to-and-fro – between live, played instruments, and the possibilities found in laptops and samplers – which has long been a backdrop to music aimed at dancefloors.

1. Change

2. High Noon

3. L.M. II

4. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun

5. Kitty Bey

6. Brown Paper Bag

7. Do The Astral Plane

8. At Les

Toshio Matsuura Group - I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (BROWNSWOOD RECORDINGS 2018)

This new Toshio Matsuura Group project single sees the return of the legendary, Tokyo-based curator, DJ and producer. One of the co-founders of Japan’s United Future Organisation, it sees him reconnect with Gilles Peterson to release this record via Brownswood Recordings in the UK. It features the likes of Nubya Garcia and Yussef Dayes, some of the most exciting players making waves with jazz-influenced music in the UK. 

1. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun 05:01

2. Kitty Bey 06:31

Drums - Tom Skinner

Bass Guitar - Tom Herbert

Piano - Danalogue

Guitar - Mansur Brown

Percussion - Crispin 'Spry' Robinson

Vocals - Daymé Arocena

Piano - Jorge Luis Lagarza Perez

Bass - Rafael Aldama

Drums - Raul Herrera Martinez