Style: Moonlit Jazz Funk

Format: EP

Year: 2016

Condition: M/M

After a stateside sojourn with the sumptuous ‚Shy Layers‘, Hamburg’s leading horticulturalist heads back to those fertile Australian climes to harvest the first 12” single on his blossoming imprint.
Back in Melbourne once again, Basso promptly pocketed the air miles and made contact with sometime space rockers Krakatau, beaming down a pair of interplanetary transmissions primed for worldwide wax consumption. Operating on their own and free from outside control, the Melbourne trio had gone further than ever before, diving deep into black holes and solar flares to create their own style of sun-kissed funk and moonlit jazz. Clocking in at an expansive ten minutes a-piece, these extra terrestrial expressions were taken back to the Bin and transferred to the only format strong enough to contain them. The A-side of this freshly pressed vinyl belongs to ‘Tharsis Montis’, a particularly potent strain of slowly creeping funk, germinated in the Victoria sunshine and matured under the steady glow of the Hamburg heat lamps. Quickly reeling you in with sexy, squelching sine waves and sweetly syncopated percussion, a stone groove takes full control of your mind and body, gently applying free flowing bass licks and the relaxed beauty of the Fender Rhodes to truly trip you out. Though laid back until fully horizontal, the cut boasts wild bursts of cosmic colour, harnessing the otherworldly explorations of Cortex, Hawkshaw and Leon Lowman whilst still keeping things Kool & The Gang. Smooth and sublime, this smokers’ jam should soundtrack BBQs from St Kilda to Crenshaw, laying everyone low with its hypnotic majesty. It’s time to take a hit my friends….
Over on the flip Krakatau offer a different kind of dope, catching the moon in its furthest orbit to find spiritual resonance with the dusty fusion of late seventies Impulse releases. Alive with rattling snares and crashing cymbals, ‘Apogeian Tide’ treads a sacred line between ‘In Pursuit Of Blackness’ and ‘Jewels Of Thought’, skipping round The Pyramids on a flying carpet of fluid basslines and cascading Rhodes chords. Nebulous synthesis glistens and glides on the fringes of Floating Points’ galaxy, while a post-bop sax blasts,
skronks and sings sweetly as we approach critical mass. A thunderous climax gives way to infinite calm and we’re floating free of space and time, suspended in a web of prepared percussion and strung out bass, drifting off to a pensive duet between saxophone and solar synth.
Exceptional even by their lofty standards, the first Growing Bin single is well worth the wait. (Patrick Ryder)

LISTEN!