One of 2010’s best albums just got equalled! Pitching together the alley cat of Gil Scott-Heron, a man who’s enjoyed more than his allotted nine lives, with Jamie X, that nocturnal studio panther, was a sublime move that looks certain to take Gil’s crackly voice off our iPods and onto the dance-floor.
True to the original album’s structure (borne from limited material, grabbed chaotically from Gil’s free styling lips), there’s short snapshot tracks and vocals but then there’s some epic club tracks. ‘Running’ splices together Jamie’s fast galvanising brand of MPC future garage with Gil’s sage words resulting in a tropical bass break that is killer.
‘New York Is Killing Me’ continues Gil’s fear of the big city but with added club bounce and hypnotic, relentless notes. Same vibe, different register. ‘My Cloud’ hears Gil almost in love with the track equally warm and loping. All eyes however will be on closer ‘I’ll Take Care Of You’, a beautiful house rendition that keeps things simple with natural keys and sunrise kick drums; special stuff.
The old timer’s voice sounds great over any sound or style borne from the youngster’s sampler, and where the original album was a long-awaited map to Heron’s recent hiatus, ‘We’re New Here’ is a psychedelic atlas with which we can all sonically voyage upon. A great way to start the year.
9/10
Words by Matthew Bennett
