説明
ロンドンのプロデューサー兼ミュージシャン Lack of Afro（本名：Adam Gibbons）が放つディスコ・アルバム。ファンク＆ソウルの香りをまといながら、クラブで身体を揺らすために設計された13曲。
Gibbonsは20年近く音楽シーンに身を置き、これまでにサウンドトラック制作やストリーミングで大きな実績を積んできた。『Love Dealer』はまさに「ダンスフロアのための一枚」であり、キラキラと輝くストリングス、グルーヴィーなギター・リフ、そして70年代ディスコのショウ的演出が随所に散りばめられている。
収録曲「Walls Start Rockin’」や「Heart & Soul」ではグラマラスかつ高揚感のあるグルーヴを、「Love Saves The Day」「Plain To See」では70年代の劇場的な演出を感じさせる大胆なサウンドが展開。「Keeping Me Strong」ではディスコ・シックなテイストと世界的ブランドのタイアップ感覚が交差し、「Idolising People Like Madlib」ではモロダー／セローン風の香りも漂う。
ディスコを起点に、モダンなクラブ・ビートやソウル、ファンクの要素を重ねた本作は、フロアを意識した音作りながら単体で聴いても完成度の高い構成。
A1. Keeping Me Strong
A2. Need You Back
A3. Where's Your Soul At?
A4. Walls Start Rockin'
A5. Make It Shine (feat Greg Blackman)
A6. Love Saves The Day
A7. You Sexy Thing (Skit)
B1. Can I Dance With You?
B2. Heart & Soul
B3. Plain To See
B4. Idolising People Like Madlib
B5. It's Not Happening (Skit)
B6. Everybody
B7. Your Love (feat Jonah Hitchens - bonus track)
Here to dazzle you by the power of the disco ball, Lack of Afro is your friendly neighbourhood ‘Love Dealer’. Two years on from the funk & soul rebirth of ‘Square One’, powered by the ubiquitous ‘Loving Arms’ featuring Greg Blackman, Lack of Afro aka Adam Gibbons is now close to two decades deep in the game with soundtrack credits galore and online streams doing calculator-busting numbers.
With extensive touring taking ‘Love Dealer’ up and down the country this Autumn, Gibbons’ ninth studio album is all for "the thrill of seeing people on a dancefloor, all collectively locked into a track that you've produced - there’s nothing like it!”.
‘Love Dealer’ is the authentic modern disco experience, packing a stacked sole’s worth of club beats full of stardusted sing-alongs, style-outs and French touch-style cool. Despite being “written during one of the longest winters in living memory”, ‘Love Dealer’, featuring some co-production from fellow South Coast dancefloor scholar Flevans (and influenced by producer du jour Barry Can’t Swim), exudes warmth and will make you sweat when its highs take effect.
Entering the scene with the radiance of ‘Make It Shine’ featuring Greg Blackman, washing over the airwaves of BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and taking up a 10-week residency on the Jazz FM playlist, Gibbons and his crack line-up of discotheque players are your go-to team when you can’t wait for the weekend to begin, as subtle as they are straight down to business.
‘Love Dealer’ offers you nothing but the best in sparkling string symphonies, the hippest guitar licks, samples of those invited beyond the velvet rope and struts soaked in night fever. Double A-side ‘Walls Start Rockin’ and ‘Heart & Soul’ guide the album’s glamour-and-groove, while ‘Love Saves The Day’ and ‘Plain to See’ dramatically take to the podium in a shimmer of pure peak 70s theatre. ‘Keeping Me Strong’ is the synergy of disco chic and the sound of a global advertising tie-in with Dyson, ahead of Gibbons taking a slightly Moroder/Cerrone-ish detour on ‘Idolising People Like Madlib’.
“'Love Dealer' is aimed unequivocally at the dancefloor" says Adam. "As an artist, I wanted to push myself in a slightly new direction - more into the land of disco and a four to the floor sound. 'Love Dealer' is quintessentially an upbeat record, full of joy, optimism and hope for the future”. Seek your inner ‘Love Dealer’, kink your ‘fro and let your funk flag fly.
