The Garden

"A brooding epic of somber horns, acoustic bass, gospel voices and crunching beats. Utterly engaging."
- Grand Slam

Nostalgia 77 aka Ben Lumdin first burst onto the scene with his heavy, funk based sound, unleashing a string of club friendly tracks on Tru Thoughts' 7Sevens imprint. His debut 'Songs For My Funeral', released in '04, was more atmospheric and moody than those early tracks, combining hard, heavy breaks with lush instrumentation and a weighty cinematic feel.

Which brings us to 'The Garden', a wonderfully realized combination of soul and jazz composition with computer based production techniques. His influences are wide-ranging: the drums of funk and hip hop are strong guiding forces as is the melody of jazz and atmosphere of psychedelic rock; blending together into a tasty psych-jazz-funk-downbeat stew.

'The Garden' includes the Alice Russell-fronted monster cover of the White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' that has been thrashed on b-Net stations and held a spot in the NZ alt radio charts for months. This deep funk reading makes the White Stripes version sound like a modern bluesy cover of a long lost funk classic!

Filled with touches of jazz, soul and folk in addition to the deep funk for which he is best known, 'The Garden' raises the standard for new instrumental music, as well as being a beautifully-crafted, involving and emotional listen. Essential