Fila Brazilia – Dicks (Twentythree)

Fila Brazilia have always been a class name to drop by fans of jazzy electronica. But aside from listing founder Steve Cobby’s Heights of Abraham offshoot as a “gem” in RC 301, I’ve never properly checked the band out. So with the release of Dicks, the Hull-based duo’s tenth album released on their fifteenth anniversary, I felt the time was long overdue.

By track five I can say that I’m a Fila convert. It’s much more melodic than I expected (and than electronic experimentalism often is) and also more daring production- and instrumentation-wise than anything equally as jazzy.

Dicks (and the band have made sure they’ve used every pun on the title you could imagine) has 29 tracks across 59 minutes. Some of which comprise random found sounds (An Impossible Place, VD and Curveball for the 21st Century). Others (like The Great Atracrtor, The Giggle Box, and Heil Mickey) are the deepest funkiest grooves, like a cross between Crosstown Traffic, Bullet, early Egg, late Biting Tongues and so on. Personally I’m quite taken with the upbeat, melodic and mellow tracks like Shellac and We’ve Almost Surprised Me – both arriving at the wrong end of the year to be summer chill out classics.

If, like me, you’re well overdue to check out Fila Brazilia then make this your first taster. I’m off to check their A Certain Ratio remix EP…