Married around a shared love of machine-led funk, outsider soul, 70s-80s nautica and 21st century basement disco, Bright & Findlay (formed of multi-hyphenate James Alexander Bright and Groove Armada’s Tom Findlay) are set to release their debut album ‘Everything Is Slow’ on 9th June via Athens Of The North. The Metro Area vibing ‘NY Disco (Smile)’ is released as a single, on which Tom explains “As the name suggests, ‘NY Disco’ is inspired by the Brooklyn disco scene, Morgan Geist, Environ, all that good stuff. All my vintage synths make a guest appearance on this one”.
After hearing James’ 2019 single ‘Tigers Roar’ on the radio, Tom reached out to see if they could work together on some new music for Groove Armada’s last studio album ‘Edge Of The Horizon’. While three tracks from these sessions made the album, the two concurrently struck up a friendship in creating a musical language of their own, leading them to form the beginnings of a new partnership tagged Bright & Findlay.
The first Bright & Findlay release, 2021’s ‘Slow Dance’ EP, garnered enthusiastic BBC 6 Music support from Gilles Peterson (amongst his tracks of the year) Don Letts, Tom Ravenscroft, Huey Morgan (for whom the duo recorded a Block Party mix) and it also received the support of Bill Brewster, Dam Funk (Apple Music), Bluey (STR4TA/Incognito), KCRW, Triple J and many others.
With a blueprint laid out, the pair began work on more songs, initially exchanging sketches back and forth between their respective studios before adding and subtracting, layering and finessing an album’s worth of music. The pair share production and instrumental work across the record, with James taking vocals and guitars and Tom’s ear for arrangement proving second to none.
All the artwork for the album and singles is by James (who works under the Fuzzy & Magic tag) and ties back into the feel of their sound. James states “I was inspired by a visit to Charmouth last summer with my family. The rocks and ancient stones we found on the beach worked so well as micro sculptures whilst I was listening back to the mixes of the record. There was a real light and shade texture from the stones that I felt complimented the music and songs”.
‘Everything Is Slow’ is set for release on LP, cassette and digital formats on 9th June 2023 via Athens Of The North.
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