contours: north west
Francisco Espregueira
Since debuting in 2016 with an EP from the mighty Mall Grab, Bristol label Shall Not Fade have become a rising force in UK club culture. The label ends this busy year with a brand new record from Shall Not Fade regular Contours. His North West EP offers three original tracks that continue to explore jazz’s space within the dancefloor, as lush grooves and energetic rhythms float throughout the record.
North West is nominally deep house EP, but the set's three original tracks are much more nuanced and open-minded than that. After a year in which Tom "Contours" Burford spent much of his time playing with tropical rhythms and native African musicianship, it's probably unsurprising that his return to Shall Not Fade would also feature some of the same influences. He also manages to bag one of his favourite producers for a contribution - the broken beat maestro that is Kaidi Tatham is left to run wild on title track “North West”, adding an extra layer of astral harmonics and turning the heat up just ever so slightly.
Scheduled to drop today, Shall Not Fade ends ‘18 with this smooth, percussion heavy project created by Contours. North West is available in digital and vinyl formats.