Richard Russell, the miracle man at the head of XL Recordings, one of the most famous independent record labels in England (and undoubtedly worldwide), having signed the likes of The White Stripes, Thom Yorke, Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy, Adele and The xx, stepped into the ring in 2017 with his very own project, Everything Is Recorded. It’s safe to say that he’s hardly a beginner when it comes to producing, having recorded Gil Scott Heron’s last album I’m New Here in 2010 and worked with Bobby Womack and Damon Albarn, and unsurprisingly his debut Everything Is Recorded became a success overnight. Between future R&B, modern soul and hip-hop, this collaborative project welcomes a whole host of first-class musicians such as Sampha, Ibey and Kamasi Washington, who join forces in the hit song Mountains of Gold, built on an oversampled riff from Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing.
And as ever, Russell brings out the best in his guests on this second album from the project, which was also recorded in his studio in West London. He is joined by Infinite Coles, the son of Ghostface Killah (from the Wu-Tang Clan) who also featured on the first album, as well as a singer from the neighbourhood that he discovered on SoundCloud, known as Berwyn. These two steal the limelight on this nostalgic album of Friday night music, which also features a new sensation on the London scene, the Nigerian-born rapper Flohio, on a hybrid hip-hop/reggae beat in I Don’t Want This Feeling To Stop. Meanwhile, Russell, who was a hip-hop DJ in the 80s, gets the sampler fired up and dips into music from Tangerine Dream, Dozier from Holland-Dozier-Holland (Pretending Nothing’s Wrong) and Burt Bacharach (on the quirky Caviar, with Ghostface Killah). A powerful and extremely well-made album. © Smaël Bouaici