Off the recently released Brownswood Electr*c compilation, “Blad” is an old-school-sounding piece of soulful beat work from the UK’s Letherette. The producers utilize what appears to be no more than two—maybe three—sample sources to flesh out the slow-grooving funk of their exclusive track for Electr*c, as each guitar strum, bass pluck, horn stab, drum hit, and vocal utterance chopped up and sequenced into “Blad” sounds as cohesive and complimentary as if it had all been performed live in one room, and not on an MPC. Letherette’s impeccably crafted tune is just a small taste of the eclectic mix of beat-heavy music to be heard on the excellent compilation from Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label.

07 Blad