When Ashley Beedle started releasing records, people used to think he was American. With next to no information gracing the record sleeves of X-Press 2 12 s like Say What , Muzik and London X Press , it was perfectly feasible that the artist responsible for the deeply soulful, undeniably groovy take on house music was from New York.
As the X-Press 2 release schedule began to storm the charts, its creators origins became known, but by this stage Beedle had continued to affect his re-invention process, applying his art to the Black Jazz Chronicle, Ballistic Brother and Black Science Orchestra alter egos. Retaining a deeply musical feel throughout, Beedle expressed his hip-hop soul and rare groove roots through all three pseudonyms.
However, despite putting out lovingly crafted and acclaimed works under all three names, Ashely ditched the Ballistic and Black Jazz tags, preferring to focus on the Black Science Orchestra moniker, and his own Afro Art label.
Yeah, all the other names are dead and buried, he confirms, explaining that he was working on the George Clinton theory of divide and conquer, but it didn t quite pan out that way.
Apart from concentrating on the new Black Science Orchestra album, which we re promised will be very r&b , Beedle has also just compiled Grass Roots. A collection of Beedle s influences that includes Gil Scott Heron, Grace Jones, Chaka Khan, Gwen Mc Crae and Freddie Hubbard, Roots points to Beedle s and dance music s past, magic tracks that have inspired and fuelled Ashley s glorious funkadelic adventures.
The other purpose of the compilation, Beedle explains, is awareness building.
It was suggested that I do a compilation and my first reaction was no, I don t want to do it. The market is full of Ibiza compilations, so I had to come up with a concept. Grass Roots was a statement, to highlight the music I wanted people to know about, music that s timeless, and stuff they could put on at home. Don t get me wrong, I m not knocking people who buy those Ibiza albums, it just doesn t gel with me. I did all the notes to each track on Grass Roots , but at the same time, I didn t want to go too far up my own arse!
Ever the charming London geezer who doesn t take things too seriously, it s obvious Beedle genuinely cares about and has a deep love for the music on Grass Roots. A music obsessive, luckily Beedle doesn t adopt a trainspotterish, isolationist stance. He wants the Ibiza virgins and the Gatecrasher kids to discover the music that originally inspired him to get involved in the first place. And, as he s keen to point out, timeless music never goes away, it always comes back to inspire new forms.
What I like about this compilation is that clubbers can still go out and buy the original versions of these tunes, he enthuses. It shows another side to artists like Chaka Khan, and I don t like this whole issue of old and new music. Once a record s in existence, as soon as it has been released, it s either good or bad. If it s good, nothing can age it, and it all swings around in the end. Anyway, how can you have a future if you don t have a past? n
Ashley Beedle Presents: Grass Roots is out on Strutt on November 1st.