16.7.07

Belleruche - Turntable Soul Music

Belleruche are a new signing to Tru Thoughts. They describe their sound as handmade hip hop blues soul, like Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Christian and Cut Chemist stuck in a dusty second hand record store with wine and a sampler, Belleruche make turntable soul music.
Their sound is pure soulful jazz with scratch and samples aplenty. Influences range from DJ Vadim to Nina Simone to Hendrix resulting in an album likened to a weird trawl through a dusty basement full of the best records you've never heard, whilst a voice you can't quite pin down sings hooks you can't forget.
Their new album named 'Turntable Soul Music' includes tracks that conjure thoughts of Stax Records recording Django Rheinhardt with Dr Dre controlling the mixing desk. Or Eryka Badu jamming with Mixmaster Mike recorded onto analogue tape by the Dust Brothers.
The threesome is made up of Kathrin deBoer (vocals), Ricky Fabulous (guitar) and DJ Modest (decks). The band was formed after Ricky and Modest, who played bizarre turntable and guitar sets in London bars, bumped in to Kathrin in the market one day. She did some singing over a cup of tea with the pair and Belleruche was formed.
The trio have attracted attention from luminaries in the UK underground music scene; with vocalist Kathryn deBoer recording tracks with DJ Vadim and performing with the Bonobo live band, and remixing tracks for labels including The Elephant, Trojan & Quannum.