Instrumental Heat & Shadow is a Russian beat-maker, part-time DJ, and multi-instrumentalist whose music, I first got acquainted with a few weeks ago, after either he started Following me (matthorowitz87) or I started Following him (heatandshadow) on Instagram. In recent weeks, I've been corresponding back-and-forth with Radislav Titov AKA Instrumental Heat & Shadow AKA DJ Strange Man through both Instagram Direct Messenger and over email... making now, as good a time as any to feature a post on his music here at The Witzard. "A native of Russia. Voronezh City. One person creates music. The studio is located outside the city; near the forest, the real "underground." This is the debut album and record single. In the future, there will be many more releases: Library, Funk, and more Experimental stuff. The first release was sold [out] before the official release!" reads an Instrumental Heat & Shadow press statement. Yes, you read that right: Instrumental Heat & Shadow's latest release SOLD OUT, before it was, actually, even released! Radislav Titov's "Afterglow" B/W "Pursuit" 7-inch lathe-cut at 33 1/3 RPM's contains two select tracks lifted from Instrumental Heat & Shadow's full-length debut, Heat & Shadow on Heat & Shadow Records; preceded by a mysterious June 2017 released 2-track digital single simply, entitled BLACK JESUS.


Instrumental Heat & Shadow constructs a unique brand of beat-centric genre-eschewing music with sonic allusions to Funk, Hip-Hop, Experimental, Groove, Library, Psychedelic, Breakbeat, and dusty Soul 45's. If pressed, I would likely, compare Instrumental Heat & Shadow's output to that of The Great Revivers, a similarly-minded Russian Library/Groove act also, recently featured right here at The Witzard. Radislav Titov tells me, he's currently planning a second pressing of Instrumental Heat & Shadow's wildly-successful "Afterglow" B/W "Pursuit" 7-inch to be released within a month or so, as well as a music video for a track entitled "Jazzy Space" within two weeks or less. Another Instrumental Heat & Shadow vinyl will be pressed and issued within the next six months and a new digital-only release in two weeks. However, for the time being, both BLACK JESUS and Heat & Shadow are currently still available to stream or download on Instrumental Heat & Shadow's Bandcamp. Ch-check out a video of Instrumental Heat & Shadow's lathe-cut "Afterglow" B/W "Pursuit" 7-inch down below with original artwork designed by Elena Kolesnikova—search "elenalenin" on Instagram to see more of her work.