Leon Vynehall is someone we knew back from his Brighton days, we were never close, but we did talk on the odd occasion. Technically at the time he was resident at his mates night Aka Aka Roar, whilst 30 seconds along the Brighton seafront we were running the Blah Blah Blah parties. Two nights that in our opinion brought many a great breaking act to the Brighton electronic music scene, and it was a shame to see both parties close their doors in 2013.
Leon an integral part of the AKA crew left Brighton around a similar time as both night’s ceased trading on the party circuit, 2013, and by some fluke of coincidence moved to my personal city of birth, ‘Leicester’. An interesting choice when you consider most artists who have out grown their local pond tend to migrate towards London or Berlin not the East Midlands and especially not Leicester, perhaps he sensed something big was growing over at the King Power stadium? Whatever the reason it certainly hasn’t handicapped his music with 2014’s ‘Music for the Uninvited‘ getting everyone in a frothy lather of musical appreciation. His follow up on Royal Oak didnt quite grab us to the same extent but a strong record nonetheless and 2015’s ‘Rainbow Road‘ via Gerd Janson’s Musik For Autobahns 2 was a master stroke of simplicity and emotion. So what should we expect from 2016 and his debut LP ‘Rojus’?
Since Vynehall started putting out records it has been very evident from the outset that he was not some 4×4 off beat hi-hat performing monkey who was going to robotically smash his cymbals to the rhythm of everyone else’s beat. A vital stance if you value musical integrity and individuality over forgettable cannon fodder. However at times this stance can be tricky when it comes to the dance floor and subsequently we rarely played any of his earlier work in our sets. This is not to say that every electronic track has to be dance floor focused, but the history of the club DJ is making people dance, a fact that perhaps, like an awkward mother in law, Vynehall was initially reticent to fully embrace. But like any family relation they can’t be avoided forever and it would appear in the build up towards his debut LP Vynehall has recognised this fact and has carefully built closer relations, with Rojus eight tracks carefully blending dance floor sensibilities with his more eccentric left of centre rhythms and melodies.
Leon Vynehall ‘Rojus’ (Running Back) Due April 1st [click link for individual track streams]