There is always a need for spaces that thrive on non-judgmental interactions and unity through artistic expression. South London-based community, Touching Bass, embodies this idea. Created by Errol Anderson and Alex Rita and sustained by a growing body of friends, they have morphed from a club night to a creative studio, concert series, NTS Radio show and record label. Since formally launching in 2019, the imprint has released innovative work from the likes of cktrl, Hiatus Kaiyote’s Clever Austin, Demae and Athletic Progression. As well as touring the globe and sharing stages with the likes of Erykah Badu and Tony Allen, Touching Bass has also moved into curation, creating a musical experience in response to Ibrahim Mahama’s 2021 show at White Cube Bermondsey, collaborating on clothing with Nicholas Daley, and much more.

Their latest compilation ‘Soon Come’ is a stellar selection of sounds that captures the eclecticism and ambition of Touching Bass. Split between two sides - day and night - the sonics weave soulful broken beats with free-flowing lyricism over genre-less instrumentation. A timeless compilation fit for unadulterated dancefloors, contributions come from an intercontinental cast of musicians including keiyaA, Clever Austin, Ego Ella May, Wu-Lu, Brother Portrait, Cowrie, 10.4 ROG and Nala Sinephro. I spoke with London-based experimental producer Melo-Zed and Touching Bass’s creative director Alex Rita about the movement’s evolution.

MELO-ZED

You’ve been releasing music since 2018’s EP ‘Eleven’. How did you get connected with Touching Bass?

I’ve known Errol for six years now and I remember when he first told me about his ideas for Touching Bass. You can put a lot of things together with A&Rs or industry-heads but when you have people with a shared understanding and put them in the same place, you create an environment where great things can be done. I think it’s that community-led feeling that keeps it alive. Being around them has been affirming and a lot of us have become good friends outside of music.

Let’s talk about your track on the compilation, ‘Ebodance’ featuring Mary Cayenne-Elliot.

That’s my mum. I was working on this piece of music and she and I were talking about a cultural dance called Big Drum in Carriacou, the Caribbean island where I’m from. There's a song in Creole that I got her to sing over the idea that I had, we recorded it and just did a few changes.

The song is on the ‘night’ side. How did you go about trying to emulate this feeling?

I was picturing sweat; a club somewhere on the Black continent where people are just dancing. I’ve always loved the album cover for Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Want You’ so I was picturing something like that.

Your sound is very cinematic so does it usually stem from a visual idea?

I am quite visual when it comes to creation. It’s not always super intentional but I always have pictures in my mind about where this music is taking me. It can be any vibe from techno to something more nostalgic but I like to keep a visual element at the forefront. Sometimes I'll even turn on the screen and have something playing that captures whatever vibe I’m trying to create.

Your music captures fragmented conversations and trains of thought. Is the idea of preservation something you think about when making music?

I’m really into the flow of music and feeling like it’s not too separate from reality and so like to involve elements that make it feel natural. In doing that, you discover unexpected musicality in things that aren’t musical. For example, if you record a conversation and then put it over some music, you find the intonation of the voice at certain points has a musical quality. I think a lot of things do that whether a field recording or just random sounds from the world.

What else have you been working on?

I do a lot of music for film and score work. There are a couple albums that I’ve been heavily involved in that are coming out quite soon and then my own stuff, which is taking longer than I wanted but it’s definitely coming.

ALEX RITA

What can you tell us about the origin story of Touching Bass?

I grew up outside Copenhagen and moved to London because of all the music. I met Errol, who grew up here, and we started doing the Touching Bass show. We had a similar experience in terms what it felt like for no one else to be into the same music as you. For him, it started up as a personal need to create something that was different to what was already there. For me, it was a space that was very focused on music rather than just somewhere to go out and get drunk. We also wanted a place where the music policy was broad and open. We’ve all seen really beautiful gatherings become very commercialised and lose their essence so we’re trying to avoid that by focussing on a slow, organic growth.

As the movement expands into different entities, how do you stay rooted in your ethos?

Intention is always the key word that comes up when we’re in meetings with close friends. We always talk about the direction and what we could do better. Last year Errol sent out a survey to everyone subscribed to our newsletter and it was about how we could improve. It’s important to be open to feedback and to do a lot of self-reflection.

Before finding Touching Bass, what did community look like for you?

I always felt different as a mixed-race person growing up in the Danish countryside. There was one Black child in my whole school and then there was me, my dad and my brother. That shaped my identity quite a lot. Then at college in Copenhagen, there were a few guys who had mixed-race backgrounds and we all just gravitated towards each other. We were really into music and formed a DJ collective and did parties together. But I was yearning for more because Copenhagen is a very small city and there weren’t enough people into the kind of soulful music that we played to make it sustainable. I could feel myself getting quite stagnant and needed something to push me. My grandmother, who’s from Barbados, passed away when I was ten and I’ve always had this yearning to understand my Caribbean heritage and so I understand her so much more after living in London.

You wear many creative hats now as a selector, illustrator, designer, singer and so much more. How does Touching Bass in particular push your own creative expression?

Working with so many different people is inspiring and pushes me all the time. For example, we recently hosted a casual supper club with our friend from Ethiopia who is an incredible cook. It was the first time doing anything around food and I was nervous about being out of my comfort zone but it was exciting to challenge myself.

You refer to the community as ‘soul disciples’, so what does it mean to be a soul disciple?

It can mean so many things; what it means to me is honouring and respecting what came before us. I find the audience we have is so respectful of the music – whether it’s a live band or a DJ, they’re attentive. That would be one aspect of its meaning. It’s a gratitude for those people who have created a sound. All Black music is spiritual because it comes from such a deep place, so how can it not?

What was the process of selecting the musicians to explore the concept of day and night in the compilation?

That was something that came in retrospect. It wasn’t meant to be this epic double vinyl, 22-artist release. A few songs were made during the pandemic, which was slower and introspective. But Errol wanted some dance-y tunes as well so we just kept asking people to send us music and were like, ‘How can we curate it?’. The Brother Portrait and Wu-Lu tracks really felt like sunshine to me. I remember saying, ‘What about doing day and night?’ and then everything just clicked and we needed more songs to have an even mix.

What’s next for Touching Bass?

We have a couple releases in the pipeline with people on the compilation, including Contour, and we are working on some really exciting live performance ideas. Aspiration-wise, we are interested in doing music supervision for film, which is something we have both dabbled in a bit. Errol worked with Jenn Nkiru on ‘Black To Techno’ and I worked on film with Azura Lovisa who is an incredible Swedish-Malaysian fashion designer. I also have an ambient radio show called Calm Roots on NTS that is grown into this beautiful thing.

‘Soon Come’ is out now on Touching Bass. Discover it here

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Published on 21/08/2022