Afro Quarters is a four-track EP from Italian producers Sofatalk (Cognitiva Records boss) & XL Regular. A1 “Rumble Strip” is a house record made from broken beat-ish percussion topped with a series of Rhodes twinkles, Stevie Wonder-sounding synth licks and little vocal snippets. Imagine if you asked a jazz-funk band to make a record that sounded like Moodymann, but they’d never heard Moodyman so you had to describe it to them, that’s what this sounds like. It’s a chunky, thick production and what I really like about it is that it goes through a series of subtle changes without any builds or breakdowns. Instead, there’s an organic feel to the instrumentation, percussion and the arrangement, with musical parts that pop up never to be repeated. No doubt, one of the best things about house and techno is the power of repetition, but also, sometimes it’s nice to not repeat things, to drop in a nifty synth-riff that never returns, and this track has little musical surprises around each corner. 

A2 “Afro Quarters” (and my brain struggled briefly with them putting the title track at A2, surely it’s A1, that’s house EP basics right?) is a similar affair and does pretty much the same thing as A1 — which I am in no way complaining about — with some additional jazz flute and keys soloing for maximum vibes. 

A3 “Easy” and A4 “On The Run” commit properly to the Broken Beat aesthetic with kick drums that are all over the place and with similar cosmic jazz-funk stylings to the rest of the EP. You could get away with one or two of these in a house set, but sooner or later your crowd are gonna want a 4/4 kick and offbeat high hat, at which point of course, you can drop A1 or A2. 

Sofatalk & XL Regular: Afro Quarters EP (Outplay / Digital / June 2022)
1. Sofatalk & XL Regular: Rumble Strip (04:36)
2. Sofatalk & XL Regular: Afro Quarters (06:13)
3. Sofatalk & XL Regular: Easy (05:17)
4. Sofatalk & XL Regular: On The Run (feat. XL Regular) (05:27)

⚪️ Disclosure Statement: This record was submitted as a promo.

This was originally published in #ReInvention: 5 Mag Issue #199 with Dance System, Lester Fitzpatrick, Roots Underground and more. Support 5 Mag by becoming a member for as little as $1 per issue.