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With the release of their 3rd album Junkyard Gods (SK182CD) on Sonar Kollektiv TWO BANKS OF FOUR broke new musical boundaries and bridged the gap between Jazz and Electronic Music. The 2 lead members of TWO BANKS OF FOUR, ROBERT GALLAGHER a.k.a. EARL ZINGER and DILLIP HARRIS a.k.a. DEMUS have a long-standing music experience and never stopped innovating.
GALLAGHER was a former member of nu-jazz collective GALLIANO, who rode the wave of GILLES PETERSONs wonderful label Talkin’ Loud in the nineties, and more recently the force behind the many moods of EARL ZINGER, whose reggae rockers cover of BLURS Song Two was an underground hit on his own Red Egyptian label.
DEMUS is a highly respected London producer whose work includes the YOUNG DISCIPLES debut LP, IG CULTURE, ZERO 7 and founding the CO-OP club. They enrolled VALERIE ETIENNE – another former GALLIANO stalwart – to become the leader of the vocal troupe and she promptly recruited PAUL JASON FREDERICKS & BEMBE SEGUE to create a power trio of voices who command the front of the stage. Their first long player City Watching released on Sirkus in 2000 got the props of all the jazz connoisseurs in the old Europe including GILLES PETERSON and JAZZANOVA.
The critically acclaimed second album Three Street Worlds came out 3 years later on Red Egyptian Jazz, a sub-label especially set up for this occasion by DEMUS and ZINGER, who wanted to create a structure that allowed them to retain complete creative control of their music. Their 3rd opus Junkyard Gods (SK182CD/jazz club) is a breathtaking and pathbraking musical tour de force that cruises elegantly through the twisted labyrinth of modern music genres from Soul to Funk over to House and Broken Beat with quirky electronic beats, solos of flute, saxophone, trumpet and piano, strangely chaotic harmonies and ever-impressive drumming sequences.
Such a record deserved further highlight and Sonar Kollektiv enrolled SEASON & SYGAIRE and ROLAND APPEL to give a new interpretation to 2 of their favourite tunes Shadowlands and Junkyard Gods for this very special 12“ TWO BANKS OF FOUR – Remixes (SK187/elektrish).
DJ and OFFtrack radio presenter DIRK RUMPFF is a long-time member of the JAZZANOVA / Sonar Kollektiv family. Also part of the group SEASON, DIRK RUMPFF can look back on releases on Compost Records as well as remixes for HEAVENLY SOCIAL or SANDBOY, the alter ego of Ex-BEANFIELD member TOBIAS MEGGLE.
For the remix of Shadowlands he teamed up with SYGAIRE a.k.a JAZZANOVA member ROSKOW KRETSCHMANN, who already had two excellent solo releases Got To Be There (SK049) and Deux Mille Deux / Oh-Ba-Ju-Li (SK119) on Sonar Kollektiv. Together they turned the light jazz sound of 2BO4’s Shadowlands into a wonderful deep-house number with uplifting stabs of keyboards and beautiful layers of pads. The stunning voice of VALERIE ETIENNE shines through the whole track and gives an extra bit of sensuality to this great number that will dominate the floors and find his place in the sets and charts of the best House Djs worldwide. The feedback so far is overwhelming.
On the flipside ROLAND APPEL gave a wonderful remix treatment to Junkyard Gods. ROLAND gained recognition from his peers and from a growing audience of soulful deep-house of lovers thanks to the 3 EPs Dark Soldier / Changes (SK158/elektrish), Unforgiven (SK168/elektrish), Innersoul/New Love (SK178/elektrish) taken from his first solo album Talk To Your Angel (SK188CD/Elektrish) due for release in June on Sonar Kollektiv. The former member of FAUNA FLASH and TRÜBY TRIO, whose hit Dark Soldier has been played by the biggest DJ such as, DJ HELL, MICHAEL MAYER, PETE TONG, LAURENT GARNIER, made of Junkyard Gods a wonderful house burner in a very nice Chicago style with arpeggiated and modulated stabs of synths over a pounding 4/4 bass beat and a manic drumulated house groove. This amazing remix that will please all the fans of the famous 808 and 909 drum synthetisers and definitely tear down the dancefloors from Munich to London!