The New Mastersounds

Regarded as a foundational presence in Britain’s retro-soul movement, the New Mastersounds deliver precise, classic funk, timeless R&B, and groove-centered jazz propelled by an assured rhythmic pulse that has drawn favorable critical notice while opening doors to partnerships with leading performers worldwide. Although the majority of their catalog remains instrumental, they have recorded with distinguished singers such as Corinne Bailey Rae on the 2003 album Be Yourself and Lamar Williams, Jr. on 2019’s Shake It. After a three-year interruption caused by external events, the group resurfaced in 2022 with The Deplar Effect, tracked during a collective session in Iceland.

Guitarist Eddie Roberts assembled the New Mastersounds in 1999 while serving as DJ for a weekly Leeds club night focused on classic soul and funk. When the event relocated to a two-floor venue, Roberts recognized an opening for live performance and enlisted drummer Simon Allen, his former bandmate from the Mastersounds. Bassist Pete Shand and keyboardist Bob Birch on piano and organ completed the lineup, prompting Roberts and Allen to name the new ensemble in tribute to their earlier project.

Momentum built rapidly: in 2000 the band issued two 7-inch singles on Blow It Hard Records sourced from initial rehearsal recordings. Their debut full-length, Keb Darge Presents: The New Mastersounds, appeared on Darge’s Deep Funk imprint in 2001, earning strong reviews and attracting samples from DJs including Cut Chemist, Pete Rock, and DJ Shadow. The 2003 follow-up Be Yourself featured guest vocals from Corinne Bailey Rae, and after the third studio effort This Is What We Do in 2005, the quartet preserved its celebrated stage energy on the 2006 live album Live at La Cova, captured at a Spanish club date. Briefly expanding to a quintet in 2006 with saxophonist and flutist Rob Lavers, the group saw Lavers depart in 2007, the same year Bob Birch exited and Joe Tatton assumed keyboard duties.

Extensive touring across clubs and festivals worldwide introduced the New Mastersounds to admirers such as Art Neville of the Neville Brothers, Maceo Parker and Fred Wesley of James Brown’s J.B.’s, and George Porter, Jr. of the Meters, each of whom joined the band onstage. The 2008 album Plug & Play paired them with vocalist Dionne Charles, while the tenth-anniversary set Ten Years On in 2009 included appearances by Grace Potter, Chip Wickham, and Skerik. Having cultivated loyal audiences in the U.K., Europe, and Japan, the quartet turned toward the United States. Breaks from the Border (2011), recorded during a Texas stay, marked the first time group members supplied vocals. Out on the Faultline (2012) was tracked in Oakland and San Francisco, followed by the German concert document The Hamburg Session (2013). Subsequent studio releases Therapy (2014) and Made for Pleasure (2015) were completed near Red Rocks, Colorado, and in New Orleans, respectively.

At the close of the 2014/2015 tour, the New Mastersounds entered Nashville’s Welcome to 1979 studio to revisit material from earlier albums that had developed through years of live performance. Before a small invited audience, the band multi-tracked these selections—along with a new version of jazz guitarist Grant Green’s arrangement of James Brown’s “In the Middle”—directly to 1" tape in one sitting. The recordings were then mixed to 1/4" stereo tape and cut straight to vinyl lacquers, yielding a limited edition of 1,000 copies released in April 2016. Renewable Energy, the eleventh studio album, was assembled from separate sessions in New Orleans and Denver and issued in 2018. The following year the group reunited with Atlanta vocalist Lamar Williams, Jr. for Shake It.

Pandemic restrictions halted activity in 2020, delaying the next opportunity to record until the 2022 sessions for The Deplar Effect at Floki Studios on Deplar Farm in Iceland’s Troll Peninsula, where the surrounding landscape provided inspiration. Lamar Williams, Jr. returned as guest on the album’s lead single “Let Me in from the Cold.” Another track, “Watchu Want,” was offered as an NFT granting purchasers access to a bonus band interview and recordings of a Spanish concert.