xl regular: xl 3000 ep
Francisco Espregueira
True broken rhythms up in here tonight with XL Regular’s new EP via ANMA Records. Following last year’s Outlines compilation, whose opening track in collaboration with Future Jazz Ensemble proved to be a surprise favourite, XL Regular returns to the London imprint. XL 3000 EP sheds more light on his expressive ideas, influences, and openness to fusing old with new.
The classic rhythms of broken beat, a.k.a. ‘bruk’, shine brightly throughout the release, from the fast-paced title track ‘’XL3000’’, to harmonically rich ‘’Sometimes’’, leaving ‘’Jv1080’’ to fill the gap for those downbeat, calmer moments on the dancefloor. The release is topped off with a perfectly iconic EVM128 remix of ‘’Jv1080’’, a stripped down, low-end heavy and dub-focused take on the original track that subtly reveals EVM’s familiar sound, long loved by both veterans of the bruk scene and a younger generation already accustomed to hearing jazz alongside cutting edge electronic sounds on the dancefloor. XL 3000 EP is available via Bandcamp and opens our heart to what might come from XL Regular in the future.