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10 Years Boxset

In the spring of 2007, musician and producer Paul 'Mudd'
Murphy decided to launch his own label. Named after the house
he grew up in, Claremont 56 would release beautiful music by
friends, associates, collaborators and like-minded musicians.
In the 10 years that have passed since, Claremont 56 has more
than surpassed Murphy's modest expectations. It has built up
a cult following around the world, with listeners responding
positively to the label's combination of magical music, beautiful
artwork, and impeccable packaging.
To mark the label's frst decade, Murphy has put together
a sumptuous vinyl box set of previously unheard material,
produced and presented with the same attention to detail that
listeners have come to expect.
Each copy of Claremont 56: 10 Years contains fve weighty slabs
of wax and a bespoke info sheet, housed in a specially designed,
hand-numbered box with debossed logos on the front and rear.
However impressive the packaging, it's the music that makes
Claremont 56: 10 Years stand out. Featuring a mixture of
unreleased tracks and brand new remixes of vintage label
releases, the highlights come thick and fast.
As you'd expect, some of the most impressive contributions
come from those artists you could describe as legendary',
including Chicago deep house originators Larry Heard and Ron
Trent. Can legend Holger Czukay kindly contributes one of the
standout moments, the eccentric 'Music To Be Murdered By',
from his own unreleased catalogue, while Afro-cosmic pioneer
Daniele Baldelli joins forces with Marco Dionigi to deliver a
typically spacey remix of Bison's 'Familiar Stranger'. There's also
an epic, Afro-tinged dub disco remix of Smith & Mudd's 'Nether'
by Norwegian scene founder Bjorn Torske.
Elsewhere, Good Timin' man Jex Opolis turns an overlooked
track by Paraiso into a samba-boogie killer, Sean P dubs out
Zee Erf's beautiful cover of 'Southern Freeez', and Phil Mison
turns FreshRo's laidback electrofunk cut 'Pacifc State' into a
breezy, Balearic gem. Look out too, for the emotion-rich beauty
of Statues' 'River Darkness' - a track arguably worth the cost
of the box set on its own - and the deep space explorations of
Almunia's Leo Ceccanti.
We could go on, but we're running out of space. Sufce to say,
Claremont 56: 10 Years is a lovingly compiled, curated and
presented celebration of the label's frst decade.

It was the spring of 2007 when Paul 'Mudd' Murphy and Kevin Pollard announced the arrival of the former's Claremont 56 label with Villa Stavros', a magical frst collaborative 12'. It
seems somewhat ftting, then, that Claremont 56's fnal release of its' frst decade will be N7 Odyssey, the frst collaborative album from Mudd & Pollard. By the time Villa Stavros' came out, the pair had already been regular studio buddies for a couple of years. Initially, Murphy had recruited Pollard - a hugely talented keyboardist and composer - to play on tracks he was working on for Rong Music. One thing naturally led to another, and soon they were joining forces to make music as Murphy's home studio in
Holloway, North London. As the years rolled by, further acclaimed singles followed Villa Stavros' - the bubbly, Rhodes-laden Balearic disco shuffe of Vincent', and the lilting, intergalactic dub disco of Scaffold', most notably - before the duo's other musical commitments began to take precedence. Murphy had his hands full running the Claremont 56 and Leng labels, while Pollard carved out a successful career as a soundtrack composer for both flm and television. Now, the album they set out to make all those years ago is fnally fnished and ready to be
released. N7 Odyssey - titled in tribute to the Holloway studio they recorded in for many years before Murphy moved - draws together freshly re-mastered versions of their previously released singles with a clutch of previously unheard tracks. Built around the duo's own fne musicianship, with Pollard handling synths, keyboards and electric piano, and Murphy guitar, bass and percussion, the album's ten tracks offer a musical journey through their shared love of shuffing grooves, sun-kissed soundscapes and
gentle positivity. Highlights come thick and fast. There's the swirling strings, futtering futes, jammed-out electric pianos and heady female vocals of Far Away', the enchanting new age ambience of December', and the rush-inducing Balearic disco breeze of Mawson's Walk', a former single blessed with sublime horn solos and rising, cinematic strings. Check, too, the head-
nodding beats, fuid electric piano solos and jazzy guitars of Inatin', the gentle Eastern mysticism and vintage ambient house aesthetics of Anura', and the ultra-deep house pulse of N7 Odyssey'. The album fttingly fnishes with a sublime ambient interpretation of Scaffold', arguably the duo's most celebrated track. It may have taken a decade to emerge, fully formed, but Murphy and Pollard have delivered an album that's beguiling, magical, and hugely comforting. Clearly, it's an odyssey worth
taking.