Bare Knuckle Soul are a collection of poets, musicians and singers who met through the Sheffield music scene in 2002. They began work on a project rooted in and informed by the history of Groundbreaking black music, from Billie Holiday to Curtis Mayfield through The Specials and Fela Kuti ending somewhere around , D’Angelo, Soul II Soul and Outkast.
Working out of a converted cutlery works in the steel city during the long hot summers without air-con, and the cold, dark winters without heating, Bare Knuckle Soul have fought through 4 years of tumult both in and out of the studio to finally deliver their brand of raw soul born from their British, African, and Jamaican experience.
Without any official release to date, the collective have already been picked up by the radar of Trevor Nelson, Giles Peterson and Ras Kwami, gaining an underground stir with a rare 4-track demo EP of their earlier work floating around radio 1. The EP was picked up by other respected sources, resulting in 2 tracks from the EP; the conscious summer soul cut ‘Just Right’, and the dark, Hip-Hop lament ‘Black; Other’ being included on The Electric Soul compilation and Chris Offili and Charlie Dark’s Freeness CD respectively. Performances at MTV Base Lounge alongside the likes of Sway and K-os followed as well as yet to be released collaborations with UK Soul’s flagship vocalist Terri Walker.
With growing interest and respect coming from the few heads who heard their work, BKS took time out to retreat to the studio and work carefully on crafting the sound and feel of an album that seems at once delicate, tough, beautiful, intricate and sparse.
From the heartbreakingly awkward tale of a marriage being held together just by the children (She Won’t Leave Me) to angry political Afrobeat driven Hip-Hop (Thief, Liar, Robber, Vampire) insane inter-planetary odes (Moon Dust) and observational social commentary (The Silence Of Oppression) The Bare Knuckle Soul LP promises a much needed wake-up call to a stale and struggling UK black music scene.
The Bare Knuckle Soul family includes:
The off-key production of Chris Finguz
The poetry and politics of MC Jahnell
The unstoppable African force of Mim Suleiman
The masterful musicianship of Darren Campbell
The soaring vocals of Pete Simpson
The extraordinary MC Serocee and
The harmonious melodies of Marius Mortley with
DJs L.S. and Lady D completing the Live experience
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