Weekend Sun / Figo

Yet more summery vibes on wax for you with Weekend Sun‘s Figo, the latest drop from those crazy cats over at Hero Records. So far listening to it im exactly what the band name suggests. (which is surprising in a way considering both hail from the North East of England, and I thought it just rained up there) and hopefully it’ll do the same for you …

The title track, Figo, sounds like the bass and horn lines from Mr Scruff’s epic Get A Move On has collided with a lorry full of Roy Budd releases with fantastic effect,  making a full bore jazz stomper very much in the vein of some of the recent Renegades of Jazz tunes. I can see this one building a night quite nicely

Keep Running switches it up with a quality brass section combined with a driving live double bass loop, which sounds fantastic given the prevalence obviously synthesised bass wobbles that seem to be all too common on every track I heard these days.

Skittery snare snaps and smoky late night vocals full of soul of  blend perfectly on track 3,  the incongruously named The Last Monkey – it’s the kind of thing I can imagine playing in a late-night jazz hole full of elegant coiffed people sipping cocktails, looking cool. Nice.

Finally the final track gives the Hero No 7 a chance to work over Figo stripping the beats back and dropping us into head-nodding foot-tapping territory.

All in all a well thought out  slab of of summery beaty jazzy niceness. If you want some of it in your life, get on it when it drops on the 12th September on vinyl or on digital.