- Alex Nut's HoTep label seems designed to catch overspill, releasing music that wouldn't sound out of place on its bigger cousin, Eglo. Just so with Negotiate, a label debut from Henry Wu. Wu is part of a new generation of musicians, grouped around South London label 22a, which shares a worldview with the older Eglo crowd. (Fellow crew member Mo Kolours appears here on the tumbledown hip-hop instrumental "Expensive Ghetto".) Just like many Eglo artists, Wu's hybrid music speaks the language of international soul, but with a dialect that seems distinctly London—quite literally on "Don't Want The Regular," where he raps in a languid London accent over fidgety guitar licks and his trademark Rhodes chords.
Wu has a few other releases to his name, but he's come on leaps and bounds here. His productions are sounding more richly textured, and his shambling grooves more sophisticated. The best evidence is lead track "Just Negotiate." a gorgeous piece of modern soul-pop featuring singer Simeon Jones and a fantastically squiggly lead line. It's so good that you're left hankering for more vocal spots, but Wu's instrumentals are pretty engaging, too. The style varies from hip-winding house ("Black Rigsby") to dreamy downtempo ("Joint Seventeen"), and the quality hardly dips at all.
TracklistA1 Don't Want The Regular
A2 Expensive Ghetto feat. Mo Kolours
A3 Black Rigsby
B1 Just Negotiate feat Simeon Jones
B2 Joint Seventeen