Train Wreck Mix

Blackbeard

Uptown Safari, London

Blackbeard are South London producers Gordon Smith and Toni Rossano. Both have worked with several British independent record companies over the past ten years. Fed up with current soulless musical trends the boys set out to inject a fresh approach. They took their love for traditional and new Afro/American centric soul from luminaries such as D'Angelo, Tribe Called Quest, Donald Byrd and used it to reinvent existing tracks. It was only a matter of time before record companies were itching for a shot of the Blackbeard injection. Max Sedgley's Euro 2004 football theme 'Happy' received the Blackbeard rework touch opening the door for other labels to get in on the action. Recent major label remixes include Jill Scott's 'Golden' and 'Down Here In Hell With You' by Van Hunt. Their first original material was launched on Uptown Safari (a label set up by Blackbeard and Yam Who?), and saw the 'Holding On' EP take off where the reworks left off, adding US rapper Bobby Boyd's vocal exploits to the Blackbeard equation. Here you can hear some of their uplifting music, a mixture of colourful street soul, underground r'n'b and classic hip hop fused with broken beat and nu booty boogie!