Secret Spotify: Dem Ones by Binker and Moses

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Jochan Embley18 May 2020

Secret Spotify is our series delving into the outer reaches of the streaming service. Every week, we unearth a hidden gem — each with no more than 50,000 plays — and tell you the story behind the music.

This time, it's Dem Ones by Binker and Moses.

In April 2016, Catford drummer Moses Boyd released Rye Lane Shuffle and it swiftly became the sound of the London jazz movement. It’s easy to see why — that three-note riff, played on tuba, with the exultant sax and aforementioned shuffle of percussion was a potent, irresistible concoction.

Less than a year before that, Boyd dropped a fierce statement of intent with Dem Ones, a six-track release recorded with Binker Golding. The wild, astonishingly accomplished and largely underappreciated album is our Secret Spotify pick of the week.

Binker and Moses, as their double act is known, first met as part of Tomorrow’s Warriors, a prolific jazz education programme that has helped spawn the likes of Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Zara McFarlane — Boyd and Golding actually went on to perform together as part of McFarlane’s backing band.

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Dem Ones is the pair’s debut release, and it’s a stunner. Recorded using analogue equipment, and featuring just Boyd on drums and Golding on tenor saxophone, it’s got the feel of a vintage release, but with all the self-assured energy of modern-day London. It’s thrilling from the off, with the ascendant free jazz of No Long ‘Tings followed by the loosely hip-hop-ish groove of Man Like GP. È Ş Ù switches it up again, with Boyd’s drumming set to a simmer and Golding’s sax an avian flutter.

On release, it registered with those in the know, but had nowhere near the impact of Rye Lane Shuffle. However, it set a precedent for the quality of both artists’ output from that point onwards. Their stuff as a duo has been superb, with two more albums to their name, and they’ve thrived with their own projects. Boyd has gone on to lead the scene, with his album from February this year, Dark Matter, probably his best work yet. Golding has been great too — his 2019 album Abstractions of Reality Past and Incredible Feathers is well worth seeking out.

Check out the rest of our Secret Spotify picks here, or listen through the playlist above.

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