Multi-instrumentalist/producer & all-around key figure in the UK's underground music scene for the last 25 years is about to release his 3rd solo album.
Kaidi Tatham might just be one of the most unsung heroes of todays music world. Anyone who knows knows, but others will surely scratch their heads when his name gets mentioned and praised. Let's briefly dive into his journey.
His first instrument was the flute, which he still uses on many tracks today (for example: Daniel Crawford's 'Telepathy'), but most will know him as a real keyboard wizard. Many people, including myself, have named him "the UKs Herbie Hancock" but I would go even further today and call him the next evolutionary step after Herbie. Kaidi has been instrumental in the shaping of West Londons broken beat-sound in the late 90s and was a key member of the Bugz In The Attic collective. He collaborated with literally everyone in that scene: 4hero, IG Culture, Daz-I-Kue, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Afronaut, Phil Asher, Seiji, Domu, Bembe Segue, Volcov, Modaji, Nathan Haines, Matt Lord, Mark Force, Alex Phountzi, Izzi Dunn, and the list goes on. * Apologies to anyone who feels left out, we promise we'll dedicate a full article some day that'll include a complete list. Todays focus is on his new tunes.
The last few years Kaidi released most of his work through one of the UK's finest record labels First Word Records. With them he released 3 EP's in a short timespan Changing Times, Hard Times and Serious Times, his 2018 album It's A World Before You and they reissued his 2008 solo debut album In Search Of Hope in 2020. To further exemplify the insane consistency of his release-flow: It was only last November that his most recent project dropped featuring Andrew Ashong, named Sankofa Season. We're still digesting that beauty and then the news arrived of his forthcoming solo album! We're not complaining though because all of it is high quality. We're witnessing an artist in his prime right now.
The album opener 'Try N Follow' starts off with beautiful harmonic chord changes in classic Kaidi-style before unleashing his high tempo modern day jazz-funk fusion. The track is only 2.04min long but the amount of details in it are impeccable and, as the title suggests, hard to follow. Instant replay-material.
'Intergalactic Relations' rides at mid-tempo speed and is filled with fat synth bass lines all over. The drums knock hard on top of subtle percussions and leave all the space for the synths to do the talking. Somewhere halfway the track takes a left turn, like many of Tatham's tunes do, and ends it on a sweet mellow note.
"It's not about a destination, but a process. It's about how you drive, not where you're going. Nothing in this world can torment you as much as your own thoughts… We are all going through it. We can all feel what the next person is feeling, believe it or not. It's learning how to tap into it"- Kaidi Tatham
Kaidi has been one of the most consistent & prolific artists out of the UK and he's definitely not slowing down on this 3rd solo album. (under his own name that is, go to Discogs and browse through his endless discography as he released music with over more than 20 different monikers)
An Insight To All Minds will be released via First Word Records on April 2nd and is up for pre-orders now.
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