No Strings - New BFE Single Out Now

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Alison Limerick and Desmond Foster in the video for No Strings.

Filmed on location at Roadtrip Bar in London and at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, No Strings is a first taste of the upcoming new album by Brooklyn Funk Essentials. The first featuring their new lead vocalist, Alison Limerick.

The song, which is a loving nod to 80s boogie disco, was written by BFE’s Lati Kronlund and Mr. ‘Cool With Nature’ - Carlton McCarthy. It features lead vocals by Limerick and Desmond Foster, who also plays guitar. Anna Brooks and Iwan VanHetten are featured on horns with Kronlund and Hux Flux Deluxe on bass and drums, respectively.

The video was shot by Mathias Juhlin, Joakim Zetterstrom and Lars Kronlund, who also edited.

Special thanks to Paul Daly, Omar Hoxton and Elias Juhlin.

Where Love Lives is the new single from Brooklyn Funk Essentials

Twenty-eight years after its initial release, Alison Limerick’s debut single ‘Where Love Lives’ is still on heavy rotation by top DJs in clubs around the World. As a third generation of clubbers and ravers get down to its uplifting lyrics and that infectious piano riff, calling it a classic is almost an understatement. It was a UK Top 10 single upon its re-release in 1996 and was voted “Best Dance Single of All Time” by MixMag Magazine that same year. In BBC Radio 2’s Listeners & DJ’s Poll “The Greatest Ever Dance Record” (2008), ‘Where Love Lives’ came in at #5 after Michael Jackson’s ‘Billy Jean’, James Brown’s ‘Sex Machine’, Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and Derrick May’s ‘Strings Of Life’.

‘Where Love Lives’ was written and produced by Lati Kronlund, who soon after the record’s first release, left London and settled in New York where he started the Brooklyn Funk Essentials together with legendary producer Arthur Baker and a selection of the city’s best young musicians, singers, poets and DJs.

Fast forward five BFE albums later to January 2016, as Alison does a cameo performance with BFE at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London. They end the set with a funky rendition of ‘Where Love Lives’, hugely appreciated by the audience and the band. Consequently, Alison joins the band and becomes their new lead singer.

June 15 sees the international release of Brooklyn Funk Essentials’ recording of ‘Where Love Lives’ on Dorado Records with Ms Limerick on lead vocals. “It’s a funky version, played all live in the studio by the band”, says Kronlund on a Skype-line from Stockholm, where the band has gathered to record their sixth studio album. “It is really a tribute to the Frankie Knuckles and Dave Morales remix of the song from the early nineties, but also to the Philly disco and Chicago house that was the song’s original inspiration”, he continues.

BFE are taking time between sessions in the studio to play a few select shows this summer, starting in Paris at New Morning on June 29 and hitting London’s Jazz Café on July 19.

Back In The Studio

Brooklyn Funk Essentials are back in the studio recording new material. This time, they have chosen to work at the legendary Atlantis Studios in Stockholm.

The studio, which is famous for its collection of pristine vintage instruments and mics, centres around a glorious Neve board, which has lived there since 1974. The band chose to set up all instruments in a circle in the big recording room, as intimacy and contact between the musicians was more important than sound separation.

Photo by Richard Ahlstrom

The band started off by rehearsing and arranging new songs at drummer Hux Flux's rehearsal room. Some songs have been developed during live gigs in the last twelve months. Others are completely new. This will be the first release by BFE featuring their new lead singer, Alison Limerick. But long time BFE guitaris/singer, Desmond Foster, is also doing a good amount of lead vocals on the new recordings.

Photo by Richard Ahlstrom.

Expect a new EP to drop on Dorado Records in June 2018, followed by the complete LP album later in the year. The band will continue to write and record during the summer, as well as trying some of the new songs out at a few select live venues. Watch this space for more updates.

The Week In Funk

Alison Limerick and Desmond Foster with Hux Flux and Lati Kronlund. Photo: Laurent Robert

This week will see the return of Brooklyn Funk Essentials on the European roads. After last week’s show at The Arena in Berlin, where BFE and special guest Hüsnü Senlendirici, played to five thousand fans, the band continues this Tuesday (March 22) with a return to London’s Jazz Café. This will be followed by no less than three straight dates in the Paris area, starting on March 23 at Le Hangar in Ivry-sur-Seine. The next day (March 24), BFE will return to New Morning in central Paris, which along with Tramps in New York and Babylon in Istanbul ranks among the clubs where the band have played most often. Rounding off the week, the band will play at Le Deux Pièces Cuisine in Blanc Mesnil on Saturday, March 25.

The band is very excited to present their new show, fronted by UK soulstress Alison Limerick alongside Desmond Foster on lead vocals and guitar. Audiences can also expect several features by Anna Brooks (saxophone) and Iwan VanHetten (trumpet and keys) in the horn section, and the solid grooves of Lati Kronlund (bass) and Hux Flux on drums. The set will include a taste of the band’s new EP, which is currently in production.