Various Artists

Late Night Tales: Badbadnotgood

Late Night Tales/Night Time Stories Ltd.

Canadian jazz-meets-hip-hop-let’s-party band of clever clogs’ Badbadnotgood deliver a wonderful entry into the late night mixtape series. Just as you might be wondering whether these sorts of mixes are needed in the era of too many Spotify playlists along comes exactly this sort of compilation; smart, eclectic, soulful, fascinating.

It’s everything you’d expect – soul-jazz, deep cuts, quirk, groove, but it’s set to simmer, a deliberate slow (soft) burn for the most part. We open with Boards of Canada and flow through the terrific Oh Honey by Delegation, and then on to some Stereolab. There’s disco-funk with Kiki Gyan (Disco Dancer) and busy-jazz fun with Thundercat (For Love I Come).

But it’s the Too Slow For Disco-esque kitsch-classics (Steve Kuhn’s The Meaning of Love) which for me hold the greatest appeal.

Then there’s the band’s cover of Andy Shauf’s Too You – a slinky wee glide, a mere slip of a song.

Just as all this stone-cold groove stuff fades to a soft end we have the craggy voice of Lydia Lunch telling a story You, Me and Jim Beam. She almost sounds like William S. Burroughs.

But fear not, there’s a second disc – a continuous mix by the band that kicks off in full soul-jazz fiesta-mode, moving towards a bit of disco before bottoming back out with some dreamy early-hours moods (The Beach Boys’ Don’t Talk Put Your Head On My Shoulder never sounded better than in this context).

As long as the Late Night Tales crew keep thinking of the right people to do the do then we – and they – will remain in business.

This one is the classic something-for-everyone feel-good vibe. The perfect dinner/drinks thing to impress both the music snobs in your life and to simply soundtrack a nice night in. For those that care. And those that don’t.
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