EP: Dave + Sam – Middle Passage EP

Out now on the Classic Music Company is the new EP from Brooklyn’s Dave + Sam, aka Dave Giles on vocals and Sam O.B. on the production. The duo make thoughtful house music with a message, in this case that of the Middle Passage of which Dave from the pair say “The Middle Passage was the triangular sailing route from English ports, to capture Africans from the continent’s west coast, and sell them into slavery throughout the United States and Caribbean islands. This labour of greed resulted in over a million deaths, the American scam, and astigmatisms of oppression that still resonate on all sides of its legacy.  Just as cells pass the memory of past lives to an unknowing infant, we bear the scars of our inheritance with pride, faith and sometimes, resentment.”

Opener ‘Til the world blow up’ is this languid, almost breezy house track, with shards of synth contrasting with these layers of warm chords and shifting bassline, pushed gently along by these pads and beats. Featuring house legend Mike Dunn, there’s plenty of dancefloor calling going on. Follow on Sauce is one of two versions on the release – the first and instrumental that features gluey chords, background noise and this popping bassline as Sam winds up on the afrobeat production. The final track on the flip is the vocal version, as Dave lays down this rap/spoken word version that takes it to a different/another place.

Prior to that though is Day One (Oh Baby), a nostalgic love letter about stepping into tomorrow, over a more insistent, dance-floor ready accompanyment, that drops in and out leaving the multi-layered soulful vocal to the fore. Is you manage not to move to this one, you’re a better person than me.

BUY HERE Expect an album to follow on later in the year.

A1. Dave + Sam featuring Mike Dunn ‘Til The World Blow Up’
A2. Dave + Sam ‘Sauce’ (Instrumental)
B1. Dave + Sam ‘Day One (Oh Baby)’ (Instrumental)
B2. Dave + Sam ‘Sauce’