One of Manchester’s favourite sons, Mr. Scruff shares a sincerely heavy track ahead of the arrival of his sixth album ‘Friendly Bacteria’ due for release by Ninja Tune on 19th May.
Yesterday the veteran British producer premiered a new track off his soon to be issued next long player, his first in over six years. Aptly titled ‘We Are Coming’, it’s the third offering to be debuted in as many months following hotly in the footsteps of the singles ‘Render Me‘ and ‘Thought To The Meaning’ , two collaborations with vocalist Denis Jones, and while both are nice in terms of songs primed for radio play, it’s the predominantly instrumental feel of this fresh outing that’s currently got us excited. With Gondwana Records’ Matthew Halsall (trumpet / FX) and Taz Modi (Rhodes / string synths) on hand, it’s certainly a tale of two halves – with Scruff’s trademark breaks, beats and wobble self evident in the first three minutes, before a sizeable drop leads us into something a little deeper. The previous glitchy effects drop away, the wobble morphs into a melody and Modi’s Rhodes solo takes centre stage, his playful vamps effortlessly riding the syncopated beat and strings slowly building to form an atmospheric backdrop. It’s definitely another killer jazz-house bomb from the producer and reminds us a little of ‘Fresh Noodles’, a track he recorded alongside Kaidi Tatham, released back in December 2009 on the Prime Numbers label and certainly worth another revisit.
With additional guest features from perennial Soul-identity favourites Robert Owens and Vanessa Freeman on vox, the new album is shaping up quite nicely in our humble opinion and ‘We Are Coming’ raises just enough intrigue to what those collaborations might sound like. To pre-order the track as well as the album, visit the Ninja Tune online shop. In the meantime enjoy a full stream of the track now thanks to the Mr. Scruff Soundcloud page.