Tall Black Guy

First Word Records has announced a forthcoming 10th anniversary edition of 8 Miles to Moenart, the debut album from Detroit producer Tall Black Guy.

Coming on October 18, the anniversary edition features two new jazz interpretations or reprises (“From Home To Work, And Back” and “Running The Motor”) recorded live. It also features a new intro — an audio manifesto called “Black Detroit” and an alternative mix of “Mon Amie De’troit” which was previously only on 7″ vinyl.

The musical performances on “8 Miles to Moenart” stand strong 10 years later (I distinctly remember that Detroit house producer and musician Jon Dixon among the players here), as does Tall Black Guy’s visionary blend of hip hop, chill house beats and soul. Tall Black Guy (aka Terrel Wallace) remembers making “the bulk of this album back in Detroit around 2012/2013, before I relocated to the UK. I’ve been back living and working in the States for a while now, and it’s great to look back on this project.”

“But while it’s nice to reminisce, it’s important to look forwards, so I wanted to include something new here to represent my progression as an artist, so there’s some new versions included, that I created with the help of some jazz musician friends of mine.”

 

The original vinyl run was from a single limited-edition pressing; this is the first time it’s been available on vinyl since. While looking for the original tracklisting, I came across the page for the original pressing on Discogs, where the sole comment is from late, great Alland Byallo lamenting that it was “such a damn shame this hasn’t been repressed” and price-gouging by Discogs resellers.

The 10th anniversary edition of “8 Miles To Moenart” is out October 18 2024 on vinyl and digital from First Word Records; pre-order on Bandcamp and listen to a sneak peek of the reprise of “Running The Motor”:

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