You may recall, last year Natural-Self brought out ‘I Don’t Need This Trouble’ which featured Alice Russell. More recently, there was the Ghana Soundz Remixes (Joe Mensa / Oscar Sulley) and the Max Cole remix. The new EP, ‘Let Peace Be The Ruler’ continues Natural-Self’s investigation into the power of the drum and percussion.

This is particularly true of the lead track, ‘Solomon’. Massive drums with the saxophones of John Styles (Quantic Orchestra / Nostalgia 77 Octet); it’s a blues march of some sort straight outta Africa. ‘The Calling’ is similar but with more of a hip hop breaks feel. And if you think those two tracks are good, ‘Fires Were Started’ adds some funk and snake charmer sax.

The ‘Into The Sun’ remix, with long time music cohort Nostalgia 77, has an elephant of a bass line. Dance darlings, this is jazz! As the title suggests, ‘Song Bird’ is flighty in comparison. Light sax, acoustic guitar and flute keeps us on our toes.

The last track, ‘Black Orchid’ is a modal piece with the cello in battle with the percussion; guaranteed Gilles will be playing this on his Worldwide show. In fact, for a live incarnation of this track, it would be a good one for The Heritage Orchestra to do a cover of; or, on an avant-garde tip, even the F-Collective!

We’ve missed the album launch party but it’s out in the shops on CD now. I’m going to get into that sharpish but in the meantime, there’s some sound clips at the Breakin’ Bread web site (see links below). Brilliant stuff.

Reviewed: Natural-Self - ‘Let Peace Be The Ruler’ (Breakin’ Bread) Cat. No. BNB 024 12” Release Date: Jan 2006
Tracklisting:
A1. Solomon
A2. The Calling
A3. Fires Were Started
B1. To The Sun (Nostalgia 77 Remix)
B2. Song Bird
B3. Black Orchid

Links:
Breakin’ Bread www.breakinbread.org
Let Peace Be The Ruler @ Breakin’ Bread.
Breakin’ Bread, Natural-Self album launch party @ Rhythm Factory, 16-18 Whitechapel, London E1. Tube: Aldgate East, 9pm - 3am £5 B4 10, £9 After, £6 NUS. “joining resident DJ’s Skeg, Rob Life, Paul T & Kam will be DJ sets from Natural-Self and guest DJs Nostalgia 77 and Timber (C’mon Feet). There are a couple of B-Boy crews and an open mic session so it looks like a busy one”.