Alfa Mist - Bring Backs (2021 Anti- Gatefold Vinyl LP)

Alfa Mist - Bring Backs | Vinyl LP - Anti- (87789-1, US pressing, gatefold black vinyl)

Alfa Mist arrived at jazz by an unusual route. A self-taught musician from East London, he came up making grime and hip hop beats before he ever sat properly at a piano, and that history runs through everything he does. His music is jazz built with a producer's ear, melodic, unhurried, harmonically rich and steeped in the feel of hip hop, and it has made him one of the most quietly influential figures in the current British scene. Bring Backs, from 2021, is his first album for the Los Angeles label Anti-, and it is his most personal, an introspective, loosely autobiographical record that threads spoken word through its instrumentals to tell a story about where he comes from. The playing is understated and warm, Alfa Mist's own keys at the centre, with his long-time collaborator Kaya Thomas-Dyke adding bass and vocals and the poet Lex Amor featuring on "Mind The Gap". It is music for late evenings and long thoughts, jazz that reaches naturally toward soul and hip hop without straining after either.

Alfa Mist belongs to a generation that has dissolved the old border between jazz and the music around it, and part of why his records connect is that he never treats the jazz and the hip hop as separate things to be bolted together. They were always one sound to him. That makes Bring Backs a natural gateway record, the kind of album that draws younger listeners raised on beats toward jazz, and a satisfying listen for anyone who already loves both. This copy is the standard US black vinyl edition on Anti-, catalogue number 87789-1.