Bass Clef is rooted in deepest London and has a very distinct but ever morphing sound and live stage show. Ralph Cumbers aka Bass Clef has been unnervingly productive recently, laying down solo and collaborations on tape and 12” under numerous different guises, many on his own Magic + Dreams cassette label. The music has seen him delve deep and weird with Ekoplekz, modular and zonal with Some Truths, uplifting and rave-wards with the Bass Clef 12” Rollercoasters Of The Heart and backwards and forwards with Coseph Jonrad. His sought-after mixes have flown the afro-disco flag which, via the world of deliciously un-smooth groove, bringing us to the album, ‘Reeling Skullways’ (on Punch Drunk), the title of which is lifted from the lysergic prose of a Brian Aldiss novel. This understated textured 4×4 journey into the heart of dance, trks that hum and hiss with machine-soul reflecting some key techno/house influences as well as emotional soundtrack pieces too. Reeling Skullways fashions new tricks from old books.
He is a dance artist who criss-crosses boundaries making friends wherever he goes, armed with his trombone, effects and percussive instruments of choice he is a potent mix of dance(hall) inspirations – 21st Century urban roots music, Caribbean rhythms, pulsating techno, hypnotic brass, machine soul and classic ‘hands in the air’ rave dynamics which all swirl around the Bass Clef sound-system experience.
In the past few years he has also remixed Kasai Allstars, Au Revoir Simone, Brigitte Fontaine, Zun Zun Egui and Grace Jones, and he recently launched a new big band live experience called Bass Clef and The Hackney Memorial Free Jazz Marching Band.
