ARTIST INFO

NOSTALGIA 77 (Tru Thougts, UK)

Line Up: Dj Set and/or Live as the NOSTALGIA 77 OCTET

Territory: Germany, Austria, Switzerland

Current LP: „Weapons of Jazz Destruction“ (as Nostalgia 77 Octet, Tru Toughts) and „The Garden“ (as Nostalgia 77, Tru Thoughts)

Artist Homepage: www.nostalgia77.com

Artist Myspace: www.myspace.com/nostalgia77

Label Homepages: www.tru-thoughts.co.uk/

Nostalgia 77’s status as UK’s young jazz warrior continues to grow apace.

After last year’s ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ for ‘Borderlands’ and Top 5 Sessions of the Year’ in Radio 1’s Worldwide Awards, he followed up with the gorgeous ‘Everything Under The Sun’.

Autumn 2007 sees the release of the new Nostalgia 77 Octet LP ‘Weapons of Jazz Destruction’, and sees our jazz hero collaborating with legends Keith and Julie Tippet, producing for Elizabeth Shepherd, Lizzy Parks, and DJ Format, and providing remixes for the Chappell Music Library.

Nostalgia 77 aka Ben Lamdin first burst onto the scene with his heavy, new funk based sound in 2002.

Unleashing a string of club friendly tracks on Tru Thoughts’ hugely influential 7Sevens imprint, he then followed suit with his seminal debut LP entitled Songs For My Funeral in February 2004.

Swiftly moving away from the distinctive raw funk of his previous singles, Songs For My Funeral saw him branching out to explore a more downtempo and jazz infused style. The album’s sound is hip-hop based beats fused with dusty old jazz; obscuro funk and psych bits and pieces, repolishing and rearranging them for modern day headphone junkies.

The success of the debut album thus encouraged him to progress with this approach for his second album offering, The Garden. A style which he describes as “a combination of soul and jazz composition with computer based production techniques”. Coming from producing hip hop style beats he had always heard snippets of jazz tracks he loved, so the fuller musical expression of actually making his own jazz music was inevitable.

With it’s exploration and updating of the oft overlooked 60’s golden period of British jazz, The Garden found huge favour with Gilles Peterson, Ed Motta, and jazz heads worldwide.

If you imagine Breakestra hanging with Cinematic Orchestra, or RJD2 teaming up with the Ethiopiques then you’re close to the current sound of Nostalgia 77.

Last year he started the Nostalgia 77 Octet live project, exploring the jazz sound further, and has recently set up his own label Impossible Ark.