Binker & Moses to release new live album

Album release: out now
Label: Gearbox Records
More info: Binker & Moses’ Facebook page

Appeared on Later… with Jools Holland (WATCH A CLIP HERE)

Best Jazz Act – MOBO AWARDS 2015

No.1 urban album of the year 2017 // No.17 album of the year 2017 
No. 2 jazz album of the year 2018 – Mojo

“There’s a jazz revolution going on all over London right now, in back rooms, pop-up clubs and hidden warehouse spaces like Dalston’s Total Refreshment Centre, and young guns Binker and Moses are leading the charge” – London Evening Standard (5*)

“It’s totally engrossing from the first note until the last” – Record Collector (5*)

“…they draw on record collections as diverse Fela Kuti and Jimi Hendrix, P-Funk and Guns & Roses to create a noise that, like Brit Funk or Lovers Rock before it, could only have come from the multi-sound, multi-cultural melting pot of London.” – i-D

Also received critical acclaim from: Jazzwise, Jazz Journal, Q Magazine, The Wire, the Guardian, The i, Financial Times, Stereogum, Gigwise 
and many more…

Following a very ltd. edition direct-to-customer release at the tail end of 2020, Binker Golding and Moses Boyd are now gearing up to release a digital edition of their new live album “Escape The Flames”. Due out 29th January 2021 via Gearbox Records, the album is being premiered in full by Brooklyn Vegan, who say “You can feel Binker and Moses feeding off each other and all the natural chemistry that they have, and when you hear audience members shout during one of Moses’ fiery drum solos, it’s hard not to share their excitement.”

Those who know the duo will appreciate that every Binker and Moses performance is distinct in itself, characterised by a mutual spontaneity and a tireless interrogation of the infinite. This 6-track recording, taken from their Journey to the Mountain of Forever album launch at the iconic Total Refreshment Centre back in 2017, is a whole new interpretation of the studio album’s first disc (with the opening tune clocking in at a full 17 minutes of semi-free exploration.) The audience’s excitement, a sound-bed of whoops and yells, is heard intermittently throughout and only adds to the incredible vibe – a tonic perhaps to these gig-dry, restricted times. Speaking about the album, Binker Golding says, “This recording is ‘Journey to the Mountain of Forever’ as it intended to be.”

The album follows the duo’s aforementioned critically acclaimed album, “Journey to the Mountain of Forever”, and their previous live album “Alive In The East”, which saw the duo playing alongside a number of the UK’s most prominent musicians both old and new – including guest appearances from Evan Parker, Byron Wallen, Tori Handsley and Yussef Dayes.

The album also comes alongside the announcement of a re-pressing of the duo’s lauded debut album “Dem Ones”. The release will be available on ltd. edition clear vinyl, initially for US customers only, from Gearbox Records in early Feb.

Binker and Moses are among the frontrunners of London-based jazz musicians that are influenced by the music that surrounds them including grime, hip-hop, electronic and blog culture as well as, of course, jazz. Like their current counterparts, they’re connecting with a new, younger audience. These young musicians have been trying to turn the expectations of the genre on its head – appearing everywhere from national televised performances such as the esteemed Later… With Jools Holland, whilst conversely performing in intimate spaces at the likes of Dalston and Deptford’s Job Centre as well in bookshops, cafes and record stores.

Born either side of the Thames – Binker north in Edmonton, Moses south in Catford – the pair met eight years ago and toured extensively as members of Zara McFarlane’s band, recording three albums for Giles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings. It was during the onstage sound checks with McFarlane that Binker and Moses started developing their duo improvisations, eventually bringing the idea of recording them to the attention of Gearbox Records, the vinyl-led record label and vinyl mastering studio.

29-year-old Moses Boyd only started playing music in his teens, but within a few short years was performing in Denys Baptiste’s quartet at the Royal Festival Hall. Moses was the 2014 Worshipful Company of Music’s Young Jazz Musician of the Year, won the John Peel ‘Play More Jazz’ Award at the 2016 Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards, and just last year he was nominated for the Mercury Prize for his debut album “Dark Matter”. Moses has also been a regular resident DJ for BBC Radio 1 Xtra as well as co-hosting a special episode of the legendary BBC jazz TV show “Jazz 625” with Jamz Supanova. On top of all this, he has worked and collaborated with artists including Lonnie Liston Smith, Obongjayer, Ed Motta, Little Simz, Four Tet, Floating Points, Sampha and Gilles Peterson. He leads his own solo project Moses Boyd Exodus which sees him infuse jazz, grime and electronica influences, as well as producing and releasing music on his own Exodus Records label.

At 35 years of age Binker Golding has already been playing saxophone for 23 years. He studied jazz at Middlesex University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he completed his master’s Degree. Born and raised in North London, Golding has recorded and performed regularly with the city’s finest; Zara McFarlane, Moses Boyd’s Exodus, Sarah Tandy and Maisha amongst others. He has learned from and played alongside many great saxophonists including Steve Williamson, Jason Yarde, Denis Baptiste and Gilad Atzmon. An all-rounder musician, he is the Musical Director of the Tomorrow’s Warriors Youth Orchestra and has composed concert repertoire and conducted the Nu Civilisation Orchestra. Not one to pigeon-hole himself, Golding’s last experimental project with Elliot Galvin produced the live album ‘Ex Nihilo’, which duly stre
tches the boundaries of improvised music and was described by the London Evening Standard as “smashing convention and revelling in raw avant-gardism. In 2019, Binker also released a new solo album “Abstractions of Reality Past & Incredible Feathers” via Gearbox Records, which was named as MOJO’s No.2 Jazz Album Of The Year, and earned plaudits from the likes of Record Collector, The Financial Times, Stereogum, The Wire, Dazed, Red Bull, WBGO, The Guardian, The Vinyl Factory, CLASH, Jazzwise and many more. This also led to Binker winning Instrumentalist of the Year at the 2020 Jazz FM Awards.

Escape The Flames tracklisting:

1. The Departure (17:22)
2. Intoxication From The Jahvmonishi Leaves (10:09)
3. Fete By The River (10:54)
4. Trees On Fire (10:59)
5. The Shaman’s Chant (11:35)
6. Leaving The Now Behind (05:39)

Credits:

Binker Golding: tenor saxophone
Moses Boyd: drums

Recorded live at London’s Total Refreshment Centre in June 2017
Engineered and mixed by Gareth Finnegan
Mastered and cut by Darrel Sheinman at Gearbox Records
Cover illustration by Binker Golding