4Hero 'Play With The Changes' album

As pioneers of jungle and drum n bass, 4hero massively changed the face of modern music and made a huge contribution to dance culture. Forging ahead with fresh beats and techniques on their new album Play With The Changes, out February 27 on Milan Records, the London-based duo of Dennis “Dego” McFarlane and Mark “Marc Mac” Clair have crafted genre-crossing stream of precious sonic moments entirely their own.

Play with the Changes marks 4hero’s first album in six years in a prolific career that has gained critical acclaim, a Mercury Prize nomination (1998’s Two Pages), MOBO award and widespread respect from the music industry. It is 4hero’s duality of approach, which makes them truly a cut above the rest. Influenced by underground techno as much as Chicago soul, their music is a synthesis of past and future, artificial and organic, strange and familiar. Intertwining live and electronic sounds, 4hero create futuristic soul for real music heads. It’s an experiment where they ‘play with the changes.’

Their new work is a richly textured and musically complex album. Fluttering, delicate beats mutate into orchestral excursions where strings and live drums give way to abstract sounds and disjointed electronica. It features a role call of superior vocalists of the quality one has come to expect from 4hero, including the return of previous collaborator Carina Andersson on the first single “Morning Child,” whose contribution to 'Les Fleur' from 2001’s Creating Patterns made it a straight up masterpiece. FACE who appeared on “Star Chasers” from 4hero’s Mercury Prize-winning Two Pages returns for “Look Inside” and “Stoke Up The Fire.” Poetess extraordinaire Ursula Rucker lends her lyrical wisdom to “Awakening.”

New alliances have also been formed on Play With The Changes. Grammy Award-winning legend Jody Watley makes a special appearance on “Bed of Roses.” Hotly-tipped Angeleno’s Jack Davey (J*DaVey) appear on “Take My Time.” Darien Brockington and Phonte of Little Brother contribute to “Give In.” And Larry Mizell--who has written and produced for the Jackson 5, Marvin Gaye and countless others--join Talita Long amongst a host of new evolving talent for the album on the title track. Bembe Segue & Kaidi Taitham (“Something In The Way”), Terry Devos (“Superwoman [Where Where You When I Needed You?]”) and Lady Alma (“Sink Or Swim”) also make appearances.

Suffused with a love of black music history (think Roy Ayers, Rotary Connection, Sun Ra, Minnie Riperton, Afrika Bambaataa), and technical innovation, 4hero’s unique brand of alchemy has given us genre-defining albums and breakthrough anthems which stand out as milestones in the history of dance music. After releasing early rave classic “Mr Kirk’s Nightmare,” they established Reinforced Records and unleashed Goldie onto the world, as well as material by Doc Scott, Photek Peshay and Grooverider.

Parallel Universe set a precedent for successive drum and bass long players and was labelled NME album of the year upon their debut in 1995. Two Pages, their critically-acclaimed sophmore album for Talkin' Loud followed in 1998. Their last album, 2001’s Creating Patterns explored more acoustic sounds and featured Jill Scott, soul-folk legend Terry Callier and 60's psychedelic poet Mark Murphy. All the while, 4hero continued to work with some of the great voices of soul, setting new standards as remixers. Their stunning reinterpretation of “Black Gold of the Sun” caused Louie Vega to label it "...one of the best remixes ever...".

Using various pseudonyms--more recently Visioneers and DKD--and through their own labels, (Reinforced, Raw Canvas, 2000 Black, Omniverse and Twisted Funk) Marc and Dego continue to venture into hitherto unknown musical fields, create sounds that no-one else has imagined and work with diverse and talented musicians, poets and singers. Their pedigree is beyond dispute and their music has always has a much deeper significance than simply moving the crowd.

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4Hero - Play With The Changes