Music News - The Leonard Simpson Duo bridge the sounds of New Zealand and Detroit with album 'LSD'
31 January 2020 - 0 Comments
Legendary Detroit MC Guilty Simpson & New Zealand producer Leonard Charles team up as The Leonard Simpson Duo and provide a one of a kind 60’s & 70’s inspired, psychedelic & acid influenced album.
The psychedelic sound of this album is heavily drawn from rare acid influenced records from New Zealand’s 60's and 70's, carefully selected, picked and sampled by musical multi-talent Leonard Charles himself and accompanied by very well placed instrumentals and interludes taking direction from late 60’s jazz/rock fusion, fuzzed out African records and compulsory David Axelrod leanings. All of that combined with the lyrics and the beloved attitude of Motor City’s finest makes this album a beautiful, inspirational and surpassing trip.
Active since the mid-90's Guilty Simpson has become an institution and earned his spot in Detroit’s hip-hop legacy alongside friends, fellows and colleagues such as J Dilla, Slum Village, Eminem, D12, Danny Brown, Big Sean, Phat Kat or Black Milk and receives nothing but love and respect from the hardest street emcees as well as from acclaimed producers wherever he goes. Over the last decade Guilty continued the name he made for himself since his 2008 debut Ode To The Ghetto (produced by i.e. J Dilla, Madlib; Black Milk and others) and has delivered plenty of features, mixtapes and studio albums ever since.
Leonard Charles (Jeremy Toy) has been a music producer since 2001. In his late teens he already played and toured with i.e. Randy Crawford. Charles attended the Red Bull Music Academy in South Africa in 2003 where he performed i.e. with Hugh Masekela and attended lectures with synth pioneer Bob Moog. He has won New Zealand Music Awards for his production and composing work with the band Opensouls (previously released on Jakarta Records) and singer Hollie Smith. As a session guitarist Jeremy has played on recordings for artists including Aaradhna, Teeks, David Dallas and many more while as a producer he has worked with Grandmaster Caz, Kimbra, Mara T.K., Georgia Anne Muldrow, Declaime and others.
The Duo met for the first time when Guilty came through Charles’ hometown Auckland, NZ, on tour in 2016. Charles reached out to Guilty and the two connected immediately, started working together and what was initially planned as an EP soon turned out to become a full-length album with late 70's inspired psychedelic and acid influenced beats by Leonard Charles and Guilty Simpson’s distinctive and uncompromising lyrics.
The uniqueness of this very special symbiosis of the pairing can be heard on the first single Nobody for example, which contains a sample of Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore by New Zealand's Marlon Williams ft. Aldous Harding. While the 2nd single My Inspiration contains a sample of Citizen Band’s In A Lifetime, another hidden New Zealand treasure - formed by ex-members of early 80’s new wave pop band Split Enz and Glam-/Pop-Rock group Space Waltz and produced Glyn Tucker, the man behind some of the heaviest 70's records made in New Zealand – show the musical range that Leonard Charles drafts from to deliver this outstanding record.
The wonderful warm and organic sound of the record as well as its trippy LSD themed concept are perfectly mirrored by its artwork and design contributed by no other than conceptual mastermind Simone Cihlar who’s known for working with Anderson .Paak, Seeed, Habibi Funk, Tom Misch and many others so far.The Leonard Simpson Duo’s debut record L.S.D is out digitally and on LP today via Jakarta Records.
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