Hip Waders by Cobblestone Jazz

The Cobblestone Jazz trio team up with kindred spirit The Mole for a double single of cascading grooves and stretched-out club burners.
It’s been over 20 years since the first Cobblestone Jazz EP, and Danuel Tate, Mathew Jonson, and Tyger Dhula continue to unravel expectations, creating outside-the-box rhythms and shifting, explorative musical structures for the dancers. It’s an approach that has seen them play countless shows at festivals and clubs around the world, while reinventing their style on the fly, and whipping up a timeless blend of classic and modern sounds.

For this single they're joined by friend, bandmate and hypnotic discotheque collagist The Mole. Hip Waders comes from one of the group’s long studio sessions, and this gem of a jam was laid to tape after a couple days of playing. Usually the group likes to set the studio up first (tuning the room, picking their instruments and setting up the patch bay), before exploring and recording musical ideas over the rest of the week. Although bouncing along at 120bpm, Hip Waders still strides into deep waters, courtesy of jazzy, tremolo chords that ripple across its skittish electronic groove, which constantly unfolds across a full 13 minutes.

In contrast, the B-side isn’t so meditative, but rather more classically arranged, and sprinkled with some live passes over the top. Does Yo Mama Know ups the tempo and rolls along on a broken, garage rhythm, before a sweet descending organ progression pulls the pulse into tighter focus. The title is in fact a nod to the Hollywood club that West Coast house pioneer Marques Wyatt did in the mid ‘90s - all about the music and sound, no lights except for those of the 1200s, and a killer vibe.

In this way, the 12” is split along true Cobblestone fault lines - a contrast of long-winding and concise, macro and micro, vintage yet (re)inventive. Cobblestone Jazz and The Mole find the pocket as they always do: those coordinates somewhere between the dance music of the past and the present, while adding a twist to create new, forward-looking versions.

The common thread that links everyone involved in Life and Death is something beyond just their specific talents.
Founded in 2010 as an Italian record label and event brand, Manfredi Romano’s Life and Death curates soulful dance music with a post-rock aesthetic.

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