Manchester Innit !!
Fresh off the back of running across Elliott Macauleys band Outfit from Manchester
I am confronted with the sound of Manchester again courtesy of Abu Maxim & The Praetorian Steppas thanks to the excellent Chris Crates Meltdown Show another advocater
of new indie music for the Soul !!
I featured the track Sweet Love on last weeks Funkytown Grooves Show and this week will feature both sides of this upcoming 12" vinyl release.
Yes. Sweet Love / Sometimes I get It are coming out on vinyl only on Kat Records. Next few weeks I think. I'll get the label to confirm that.
Abu works with a top team of Manchesters finest musicians inc Chris Manis, Mikey Wilson, Sylvan Richardson, John Ellis, Diane Charlemagne....
I asked Abu for some of his influences
"cool...well firstly I started listening to electro - all the streetsounds stuff and then hip hop. Through hip hop I started to find out where the breaks were lifted from which took me to funk, jazz soul, folk...and at the same time I was into chicago house and detroit techno
I grew up in cheetham hill so I was hit by lots of different musical genres from a very early age...my mum's indian love songs and abba, my dads qawali's and raags, reggae from the neighbours and street soul from the youth club."
That all sounds suitably Street & Dodgy to me :-)He continued :-
"I think I've always liked the electronic side of things though, especially when its mixed with real players - a la Headhunters.
"I worked on a tech house project called Freak Seven. It features Aniff Akinola (Aniff is an old friend of mine from back in the day a great Manc supporter of clubs like Rafters / Berlin with myself Colin Curtis / Hewan Clarke / John Grant no a many years devoted studio hip cat,remember Chapter & Verse Black Whip ) on vocals. It was released early this year on Rush Hour and it caused a few ripples - a lot of big dj's on that scene were playing it. I think its so good because of the vocals though - Aniff is awesome!
Nano Kids'is another project I worked with Aniff and is a pulsating house track which gets uplifted by Aniff's voice, creating an anthematic message from the future."
You can find out more about Abu Maxim & his Praetorians and his history,Kat Records and other projects from deepest Manchester on Wednesday 2nd November on my Funkytown Grooves Show on SoulGang/Hitmix Radio www.soulgangradiofm.com as he is coming into the studio with me for a further grilling ! Maybe we could even coax Hewan & Annif !!! Yeah right !! Tentacles crossed :-)
As we explore again the Sound Of The Underground !
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