Madlib & Four Tet Share "Road of The Lonely Ones" from Upcoming Collaborative Album Sound Ancestors (Madlib Invazion)
Just this year alone, extremely prolific DJ, producer, emcee, and multi-instrumentalist Madlib has self-released Bandana Beats (an instrumental version of his 2019 album with Freddie Gibbs,) The Professionals/The Professionals Instrumentals with his brother, Oh No, a special Piñata '64 variant of his 2014 album with Gibbs, and Pardon My French as The Jahari Massamba Unit with Karriem Riggins. But somewhat unsurprisingly, Madlib isn't done just yet... yesterday afternoon, long-time friend, ex-Stones Throw general manager, Now-Again Records founder and president, and parter in Madlib Invazion Eothen "Egon" Alapatt (@nowagain) made a surprise announcement on Instagram. Within a lengthy post, Egon shared Madlib and like-minded beatsmith Four Tet had been working together on a collaborative release. "Sound Ancestors, arranged by Kieran Hebden, coming January 2021 on Madlib Invazion. First single, "Road of The Lonely Ones," coming tomorrow, with a premier on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC show," @nowagain explained.
And now, since "tomorrow" is today, we're able to share said track, "Road of The Lonely," from Madlib's forthcoming Sound Ancestors fully orchestrated and re-arranged by Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet. It's a sparse throwback Soul/Funk-leaning track that oozes everything we know and love about both Madlib & Four Tet complete with a sample of The Ethics and drum fills provided by J-Zone. Lest we forget, this isn't exactly the first time we've heard these two together, as Stones Throw enlisted Hebden for Four Tet Remixes back in 2005 featuring five remixes and five instrumentals of tracks culled from Madlib & MF DOOM's MADVILLAINY credited to MADVILLAIN. Four Tet's most recent release prior to this was a mysterious black label now-digitally released double A-side single entitled "Her Revolution" / "His Rope" concocted with Burial & Thom Yorke (Radiohead) for XL Recordings. There's no particular press release or press materials for either Madlib & Four Tet's Sound Ancestors or "Road of The Lonely Ones," but we do know it will be dropping sometime during January 2021. However, below, you will find two lengthy, fairly self-explanatory posts from both Egon & Four Tet.
Sound Ancestors, arranged by Kieran Hebden [Four Tet], coming January 2021 on Madlib Invazion. First single, "Road of The Lonely Ones," coming tomorrow, with a premier on Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC show.
I took this photo of these two incredible musicians, two of my favorite people in the world (some of you might know that my oldest son is named Kieran,) at Ed Wilson's @brawn49, the night that the three of us committed to seeing through this album together. It was an appropriate spot, a short walk from where Madlib & I first met Kieran, outside of the legendary Plastic People venue, on the first gig I'd done with him in London, on the eve of releasing his Yesterdays New Quintet debut.
Kieran was just there, you see, outside the venue, with some CD-R's of his music to give to us, previews of his album, Pause, and Koushik's Battle Times EP. I remember how thrilling it was to listen to those albums and find a new, intrepid friend in musical discovery. And things have just gotten deeper ever since.
Madlib wouldn't trust his music to anyone and it was with great care that Kieran worked his way, over the course of some years now, through hundreds of beats and songs and sounds to create this album.
He tells the story well on his page, so go check it... We decided that this entire album's creation and roll out would follow Kieran's main ethos—do, in music, what brings you the most joy—and so there isn't any press release, or press, or much of anything. But I was trying to put it into words and this is what I came up with: Gil Evans to Miles Davis... Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can... Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That's the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet & Madlib's collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two decade-long friendship that follows the path started with Quasimoto's The Unseen, MADVILLAIN, and his Piñata & Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs."
- Egon (@nowagain)
A few months ago, I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we'd been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib "solo" album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use, but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start-to-finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas, and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate, and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.
Eothan Alapatt [Egon] @nowagain worked with us on the whole project guiding and advising and has now prepared the album for release. He's had Bernie Grundman cut the vinyl and everything is in-production and will be ready soon.
The album, Madlib - Sound Ancestors, is being released January 2021. The first single, "Road of The Lonely Ones," drops tomorrow and will be premiered by Mary Anne Hobbs on BBC 6 Music. Get ready, set your alarms, play it loud! 🚨🚨🚨🚨🔥💿"
- Four Tet (@fourtetkieren)