Where has Redinho been hiding? That’s what I was wondering when I caught Glasgow dance label Numbers’ funkmaster playing live at an off-Sonar party earlier this year, all dry ice and keytar and basslines for days. Swaggering out of the mist like some kind of talk box-warped funk demi-god, he revealed that his relative obscurity since 2010’s Bare Blips EP has not been without purpose: all this time, he’s been building on those bare blips, nourishing them into alien synth jams inspired by the likes of Stevie Wonder and 80s band Zapp. The result is a debut album that’s ecstatically full of life and colour, from the night-cruising wordless jams of “Searching” and “Shem” to the raunchy “Playing With Fire” and pop-leaning collaborations with vocalists Vula and Brendan Reilly. What’s outstanding about this self-titled record is that it makes little attempt to be cool, or to sound like anything else that you hear daily in 2014 – there’s no features from “hotly tipped” singers, and the climaxes are cinematically blown-out. All this time, Numbers’ secret weapon Redinho has been working hard on his craft, and he’s come out fighting with a sound that’s unashamedly and ecstatically his own.
Redinho's self-titled debut album is out on September 22/23 (US) on Numbers. Pre-order here
