Skeletons - Smile (2010)

Benedic Lamdin is a musician, producer and engineer from London, UK. He has produced a string of LP's as Nostalgia 77 for Tru Thoughts Recordings (UK), he also produces all the releases for his own label, Impossible Ark In addition, he has worked with Elizabeth Shepherd, Alice Russell, Keith & Julie Tippett, to name a few. This time though he has summoned a new style of work with a heavily African influenced record: inspired by Fela Kuti's minor-key Afrobeat moves, Mulatu Astatke's Ethio-groove and what sounds like some vaguely Afro-jazzy Italian sound library joint.

'Some of the music here started life as commissions for a library music company, pastiches and forgeries paid for by the current vogue for a certain style of African jazz. Once I'd done a few though I couldn't stop, it was my default preoccupation, something for me once I'd finished working on other people's albums. It was relaxation, something that didn't matter whether it worked or not. The whole LP was made like that, done in the time between recording jobs.

Smile was almost entirely written by Lamdin, whilst actually being played by various musicians as they passed through. The result is an incredible musical collage that has taken on its own identity.