Bangs & Talbot – Smokin’ Aces – Acid Jazz UK LP

Acid Jazz godfather Chris Bangs and keyboard maestro Mick Talbot return with their new collaboration album, the follow up to 2022’s Back To Business.

Following the recently sold-out seven-inch sensation ‘K-Jee’, AJ announce the new album from Bangs & Talbot ‘Smokin’ Aces’ out on 23 January. AJ has a long history with Chris Bangs (who coined the term ‘Acid Jazz’) and Mick Talbot (who appeared on one of AJ’s earliest and rarest singles as ‘King Truman’ back in 1988). Following the pair’s 2022 collaboration album ‘Back To Business’, AJ are proud to release the their new collaboration album. Smokin’ Aces is an uplifting, contemporary fusion of an album that perfectly distils the sounds of acid jazz.

tracklist:

A01 Smokin’ Aces
A02 K-Jee
A03 Keep Love Moving On
A04 Subway Strut
A05 Una Mas
A06 Club Date
B01 Double Diamonds
B02 Soul Sauce
B03 TLC Tender Loving Care
B04 Play The Game
B05 Chilli Tamales
B06 The Last Minute
More Info:

The record has taken the best part of three years to come together and as Bangs puts it, ‘We made the album with so many great musicians out there and we wanted to try and get as much playing and as much human feel as we could into the songs. AI is pretty much bound to be the future but for now we wanted to make our music as authentic as possible.’

The process started while Bangs was living in Southern Spain, circa late 2022, with him sending backing track ideas to Talbot in London and him sending back his guide keyboards recorded onto his phone and shared via WhatsApp. ‘It’s the one bit of tech we couldn’t have made this record without. Most of the sessions for the album were recorded in the home studios of the featured musicians and some we even had to communicate with using Google Translate.’

The results speak for themselves with musicians and vocalists from the Americas, Africa, Asia and all across Europe gracing the 12 songs on the album. As Talbot says, ‘The album is kind of Retrophonic, but also, Contemporary at the same time. Its got the groove of a live band, all the music was jammed around the song structures and then Chris assembled the whole thing like a giant jazzy jigsaw.’