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Insect Funk, the new album by Elmore Judd, is released by Honest
Jon’s in September 2007 – fourteen tracks of weird soul made in
Tufnell Park, north London.
Who is Elmore Judd? Listening to Insect Funk should give you a pretty
good idea. The first thing you’ll notice is that he’s got an amazing
record collection. Insect Funk references an array of artists and
styles; from between-the-sheets soul and P-funk to art-school disco
and rock avant-gardism, UK hip hop and African roots music, horror
soundtracks and jazz.
You’ll also notice that Elmore Judd has a vivid imagination; his
world is populated by pirates, rats, Snakefinger, dead men and Tron.
He lives in London. And he obviously knows how to have a good time -
Insect Funk is an ecstatic, danceable, menacing record. He’s probably
the man at the party having more fun than anyone else and he’s
definitely going home with your date. Sound too good to be true? It
is good, and it’s almost true. Tease apart Elmore Judd’s multiple
personalities, and you’ll find something like this….
Jesse Hackett made the first Elmore Judd record, Angel Sound, more or
less on his own back in 2005, had a thousand copies made and sold
them outside Rhythm Records – formerly Honest Jon’s – on Camden High
Street. ‘I’m not such a bad salesman,’ Jesse remembers. ‘One day I
sold ten. And they were a tenner each, so it was £100. Not a bad
afternoon’s work.’ Drummer Tom Skinner made a brief appearance on
Angel Sound, but he’s all over Insect Funk, playing a kit, primitive
drum machines, scaffolding poles and pots and pans. Guitar duties are
handled by Chris Morphitis, childhood friend of Jesse and Tom. He’s
also the bouzouki player and rembetika enthusiast. ‘He’s half Greek’
Jesse explains, ‘and he’s really got in to his Greek thing. He’s
interested in 1930s underground Greek music, really dark, weird
stuff, all about smoking hash and funny goings on in brothels’.
Enrique Joyette is the band’s secret weapon. His sweet vocals sit
behind Jesse’s on the record, but live he’s a full-on soul shouter.
He also kept the band alive while the record was being made, bringing
his mum’s West Indian cooking to the studio. ‘We’d have no money,’
says Tom, ‘but at least we’d have something to eat!’ Leon de
Bretagne, the unmistakably French bass player, has also played with
Bilal, John Legend, Ty and Estelle. Keeping it in the family, Jesse’s
brother Louis also lends a hand with percussion, keys and production.
He’s a veteran of the UK hip hop scene, turntablist to the Taskforce
crew and originator of the £10 Bag mix CD series.
Insect Funk was put together in Jesse and Louis’s studio space, just
off the Camden Road, in a pretty much derelict warehouse. Their
nearest neighbours were the upholsterers upstairs, and the band could
– and did – make as much noise as they wanted. Jesse: ‘We recorded
smashing some scaffolding poles out in the courtyard. Just started
throwing them around to give it that industrial edge…’ You can hear
the results of this al fresco recording method on Don’t Lie, a cover
of the Snakefinger tune and the only non-original track on the album.
Sessions were relaxed and the band set up was as near to live as
possible, a situation that influenced the sound and shape of the
record. ‘We had loads of jams, weird ideas… we’d normally start just
by playing. I don’t think we ever started with a song first. It was
much more about just playing and catching free ideas, as they came
up,’ explains Jesse. Not that it was all free-form chaos, according
to Tom: ‘We’d go back to these things and refine them – by that point
maybe Jesse would have written some words and we’d construct the
songs around them.’
No-one could accuse Elmore Judd of making simple music; they operate
on the principle that if you’ve got a groove it can only be improved
by a bit of bouzouki. Found a hook? Scuff it up, play it backwards
and really make it sing. Ask them who they imagine their listeners to
be, though, and they’re totally direct and uncomplicated. ‘People’
says Jesse. ‘Doesn’t matter about age, or a scene, or a style.’ ‘It’s
our sound,’ agrees Tom. ‘It’s not nu-rave.’
Future plans include lots of gigs. They’ve got an enthusiastic fan
base for their live shows; joyful, sweaty parties where all are
welcome. They’re already working on the next record, but not at the
Camden studio. Jesse shakes his head. ‘It burnt down. The whole
building was torched. We lost everything. The room was just …charred.
Including our multi-tracks with our album on. I was convinced it was
fucked, but we managed to clean up the boxes a little bit and send
them off to Roland and the hard drives were fine. They recovered all
our material, the whole album.’ He’s philosophical about their
losses, though. ‘It was horrible but it was just… things. You’ve
still got your ideas and the music inside your head.’
So that’s Elmore Judd; musician, music lover, survivor, fabulous
figment of a collective imagination.
