Is Canada the next future bass hot spot? The Great White North has given us Jacques Greene, Egyptrixx, and half of LOL Boys. On the strength of just a few releases, it may be time to add Grown Folk to that list.
Grown Folk is a Montreal-based collaboration between Drew Kim and Brendan Neal. The duo crafts house tracks that seamlessly blend old school and new school sounds; think Azari and III with the sensibilities of Kingdom.
Their debut City Wind EP, released earlier this year on Templar Sound, runs the bass music gamut. They come out strong with the throwback house of “The Uptown Shuffle;” “VVS (Very, Very Slightly)” is darker, with a clipped diva vocal loop that runs through the track like an electric current. On “Block is Hot,” Grown Folk shows the juke influences that they share with contemporaries Canblaster and Pearson Sound; Damu’s remix of the song is all sub-bass and laser-light synths. And don’t let the double entendre title throw you – there’s nothing halfway about the groove on “Halfway House.”
[wpaudio url=”/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/halfway_house.mp3″ text=”Grown Folk – Halfway House” dl=0]
The duo gets deeper on their latest offering, the Droptop EP on Silverback Recordings. The video for the title track is a summery acid trip well-suited for the song’s big bass line and sexy vocals, two things that dominate the rest of the EP. As remixers, Grown Folk has smoothed out tracks by LOL Boys and FaltyDL. They got in on the rhythm-and-bass game with a swirling bootleg of The-Dream’s remix of “Motivation,” the powerhouse single by Kelly Rowland.
Across its online presence, Grown Folk shares a telling epigram: “It’s a new decade / The usual lingo / The usual rhythm.” It’s a take on the intro of A Tribe Called Quest’s “Rhythm,” and if that doesn’t boil it down enough, the song’s subtitle does: “Devoted to the Art of Moving Butts.” Listeners and dancers alike will soon appreciate Grown Folk’s devotion.
Download: Grown Folk – U Know the Time
Download: The-Dream, Kelly Rowland, Lil Wayne – Motivation (Grown Folk Bootleg)
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