Halfway Somewhere: Vinyl 2LP Galliano

Almost three decades on from their last release, Acid Jazz forefathers Galliano are back with news of their new LP ‘Halfway Somewhere’ which is being released on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings on 30 August.

Born out of London’s underground clubs and warehouse parties of the mid to late eighties, with the debut single on the Acid Jazz label in 1988, Galliano came out of a culture that spanned music, dance, fashion, art, design, and the written word.

When they arrived as the first act on Gilles Peterson’s Talkin’ Loud label in 1990 with ‘Welcome to the Story’ (produced by Chris Bangs who invented the term Acid Jazz) dressed in Gabicci sweaters, beads and skullcaps they captured a scene built on re-invention. “We were all playing around with what we could get our hands on whether that was a seventies book on Jamaican style or old Last Poets and Watts Prophets records,” says Gallagher. “We’d been recycling things for a few years but suddenly everything had coalesced and you’ve got an amalgam that seemed quite solid.”

For their first album since 1997, Rob Gallagher and his partner, vocalist Valerie Etienne, are joined by Galliano stalwarts Ernie McKone on bass, Crispin Taylor on drums, and Ski Oakenfull on keys (with guests including saxophonist Jason Yarde and percussionist Crispin ‘Spry’ Robinson).

Where the old Galliano recycled records they heard at clubs, today they are responding to the kaleidoscopic global jazz scene – from Total Refreshment Centre in London to International Anthem in Chicago. More than forty years since they came together, Galliano are still only ‘Halfway Somewhere’, but listening to the album they are obviously having fun getting there. “I think the stars have to be aligned when you redo things,” says Gallagher. “Coming at it from this door is very different to the door we came into back then. But once it’s existing it is something. But I’m still not sure what that something is.”

Tracklist:

A1. Brownswood Rockers / Golden Shovel (Somebody Else’s Idea) 
A2. Dancin’ Your Own Time 
A3. Limebike Getaway 
A4. General Rubbish vs The Sportswear Mystics 
A5. Tottenham 
 
B1. Crow Foot Hustling 
B2. Numbers Click 
B3. Circles Going Round The Sun 
B4. Golden Shovel 2 (Somebody else’s Idea) 
 
C1. Jazz 
C2. Halfway Somewhere 
C3. Of Peace 
C4. Move As One… 
C5. In The Brakes 
 
D1. 57th Min / Power and Glory 
D2. Kingsland Road 
D3. Cabin Fever Dub 
D4. Euston Warehouse 
D5. Pleasure, Joy & Happiness