Louis Cole at Festsaal Kreuzberg / Sunday, 26.05.2019

You know if its on Brainfeeder its gonna be funky, and Louis Cole doesnt disappoint. Catch him performing a solo show at the Festsaal Kreuzberg this May.

Louis Cole’s instrument of choice is the drums, but he definitely knows his way around a killer set of changes. „Time“, his third album, is brimming with strange, counterintuitive progressions— chords that seem to slip sideways, tumbling into one another, jostling and pivoting just when you don’t expect. An unusual mixture of hard funk and soft pop, like Zapp and Burt Bacharach stuck in an elevator together, Cole’s is a sly, jubilant sound; it makes good use of the way funk also thrives upon a sense of wrongness, a screw-faced delight at things gone awry.

“Time” is Cole’s third album – a casual but addictive blend of quickfire, hook-laden electrofunk bullets and wistful, soft-focus balladry – and it’s compelling. “A lot of it is little thoughts, that I made into big songs… blasts of inspiration that I was lucky enough to receive,” he explains. “But it all comes back to my mission to create deep feelings through music.”

Proudly DIY to date, Louis has built up an ardent fanbase for his own solo output and that of Knower who zig zag across the globe on tour. However in 2009 he met Dennis Hamm – keys maestro in Thundercat’s live band – who introduced Louis to Thundercat and Flying Lotus. “Dennis bridged the gap… he was the link. In fact, Flying Lotus asked Dennis if I would want to release something on Brainfeeder before he even asked me.”

Louis’s new album features his friend Thundercat (with whom he worked on “Drunk” co-writing ‘Bus In The Streets’ and ‘Jameel’s Space Ride’) who returns the favour, contributing lead vocals on ‘Tunnels In The Air’. Genevieve Artadi and acclaimed jazz pianist and experimental composer Brad Mehldau also pop up on ‘When You’re Ugly’ and ‘Real Life’ respectively. Furthermore, ‘Last Time You Went Away’ features a 23-piece string orchestra – the Rochester Stringz from Eastman School of Music.