ElectroBluesSociety Resurrect 2006 Roscoe Chenier "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Acapella for Digital-only Re-release (Black & Tan Records)

ElectroBluesSociety are a Dutch-based "Organic Dance music" duo mixing electronics with raw, vintage live Blues-based sounds; self-described as "two guys and a bunch of junk with a broad taste and an open mind. Together, they are mixing modern technologies with 30+ years of live stage experience." ElectroBluesSociety (EBS) consists of drummer and bassist Jasper Mortier and guitarist and Black & Tan Records owner Jan Mittendorp. Mortier has worked with the likes of Paul Oscher, Preston Shannon, "Sax" Gordon Beadle, Philip Walker, and Boo Boo Davis, while Mittendorp has toured extensively across Europe & The US with artists such as Percy Strother, Smokey Wilson, Boo Boo Davis, Erskine Oglesby, and Roscoe Chenier. Jan Mittendorp personally, worked with American R&B singer and guitarist Roscoe Chenier for nearly 20 years and released two of his critically-acclaimed albums—Roscoe Style (1998) and Waiting for My Tomorrow (2006)—on Black & Tan Records. Chenier's rendition of traditional Gospel hymn, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" was originally released on Waiting for My Tomorrow in sparse, stripped-down acapella form.


Now, nearly 12 years after its initial release, Black & Tan Records have properly re-released "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" with a newly-orchestrated backing track arranged by EBS to accompany Roscoe Chenier, who, unfortunately, passed away in 2013. Jan Mittendorp said, in an exclusive statement sent to The Witzard, "Jasper and I and both terrible singers (to put it mildly) but [on the other hand], we love Blues and Roots music, mainly because of the vocals." Mittendorp enthusiastically continued: "so, instead of doing some bad singing ourselves, we prefer to use something good that is already existing. We have some more projects coming up, where we use new vocal recordings of guest singers that we invited for a recording sessions." ElectroBluesSociety's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" personally, reminds me of Jamie xx's 2011 full-album remix of Gil Scott-Heron's 2010 return-to-form I'm New Here, fittingly re-titled We're New Here. "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" has been released as a digital-only single on Black & Tan Records, now available on Apple Music, Deezer, Soundcloud, Spotify, and similar like-minded digital retailers.