In a groggy, bandy-legged pursuit of vibes felt on 2023’s cult side ‘Disenfranchised Refuseniks’, Michael J. Blood and Samizdat share equal billing on a 100% killer session of triple distilled US soul, jazz and house inspirations filtered thru a Manchester lens. It’s some of the closest we’ve heard to Kenny Dixon Jr. aka Moodymann beyond his Mahogani Music and s/t labels, but also with a watermark of identity that places it in a shared microcosm with that mad Louie Baloue discovery on Light in the Attic or Ajukaja & Mart Avi’s Estonian strains or Madteo’s most whacked out and hazed productions, even giving flashbacks to Autre Ne Veut’s beloved debut. Basically the dogs bollix; your ears do not deceive you!

Kicking off with Samizdat legs akimbo and drawling to MJB’s honky jazz blues and sampler haze in the exemplary ‘14th Floor (There’s a Fire)’, it proceeds to unbuckle and get loosy goosey as fuck in the sashay from their sleazy debonair ace ‘Ain’t Seen Nowt Yet’, the slanted electro-soul bleat of ‘Win Me Over’, and thru the dusky seduction of ‘In the Middle’, to their final urge to ‘Let It Go’. We can also point to their hair-kissing centrepiece ‘Lullaby’ and what could be a prime era Olde English Spelling Bee H-bop joint from ANV or Greatest Hits on ‘Maybe U Been Brainwashed 2’, but it’s simply all gravy on the shagpile.