On November 20th OG NY dons Masters At Work (AKA KenLou) deliver a set of peerless, platinum grade reworks of ‘Antigravity Love’ by Bristol innovator Krust, released via Crosstown Rebels.
Hugely important in their respective fields, this meeting of veteran titans is the latest chapter in an exchange that reaches back to 1997, when Krust sampled MAW alias Nuyorican Soul’s ‘Nautilus (Mawtilus)’/‘Mind Fluid’ on his game-changing single ‘Soul In Motion’. This was followed in 1998 by Nuyorican Soul’s remix of ‘Watching Windows’ by Reprazent, of which Krust was a key member. Both Krust and Masters At Work were also labelmates on Gilles Peterson’s Talkin Loud label.
Across four versions the duo known individually as Kenny” Dope” Gonzalez and Little Louie Vega deliver pure audiophile euphony, with a sonic depth and quality only achieved by years in the game. Somewhere between broken beat, real house, cosmic acid and future jazz funk, rich drums swing in classic NY fashion, weighty bass throbs and elegant musicality flows on these full-blooded productions, which ooze the inimitable substance of analogue.
Krust is the latest in an A-list roll call of artists to receive the MAW/KenLou magic, which includes Manu Dibango, Donna Summer, Bjork, Nina Simone, Janet Jackson, Madonna, Dua Lipa, Stevie Wonder, Kings Of Tomorrow, Neneh Cherry, Michael Jackson, Tito Puente, Cajmere, The Neville Brothers, Ten City, Soul 2 Soul, Ray Charles, Baba Maal, Saint-Etienne, Alison Limerick, Tito Puente, Everything But The Girl, Mr Fingers and Dee Lite.
With its frantic spoken word energy, ‘Antigravity Love’ shares lineage with Krust’s 1999 album title track ‘Coded Language’, featuring Saul Williams. The original version of ‘Antigravity Love’ is a collaboration with director Michael Williams, who wrote the monologue to which Krust composed around. Part Afro Futurist love poem, part current affairs tirade and part ‘12 Monkeys’ style mad rambling, it captures the confused frustration of someone untethered and lost, searching to find their way.
