First Home

Soaring horns, jangly highlife guitars, Latin-Caribbean polyrhythms and politically-charged lyrics collide in pulsing afrobeat and UK jazz conversation on First Home, the debut album by Leeds-raised 10-piece, TC & The Groove Family, forthcoming this June 2022 on the Gilles Peterson-approved, Bristol based label, Worm Discs.

Produced by Nubiyan Twist’s Tom Excell (Onipa, Ego Ella May, Nerija) and following in the footsteps of fellow Leeds-grown talents, Submotion Orchestra and Necktr, TC & The Groove Family’s First Home melds a divergent and international pool of influences (as heard in their fiercely energetic live sets), whilst also telling the story of a group of friends returning to the city where they once assembled, to chant down the powers that be and further widen the British jazz sound through a distinct 2022 Leeds filter. The group will perform at festivals, We Out Here, Shambala, Wilderness, Outlook UK, and Green Man this summer 2022.

Comprising members who learnt their chops performing across Leeds’s thriving live-music circuit, TC & The Groove originally formed as the brainchild of drummer/percus­sionist and Midlands-raised, Tim Cook. All but one of the group studied at the renowned Leeds College Of Music and through their communion on the dancefloors/streets of Leeds’ famous Subdub, Leeds West Indian Carnival and at Cosmic Slop parties, TC & The Groove Family’s mixed-gender and multicultural unit bring together a stylistic range that encompasses Soulful house/UKGinspired vocals, King Tubby, post-punk/indie and DJ Shadow. Inviting such a disparate group of musicians might have seemed random at first but what was to follow was an unmatched sense of comfort and familiarity.

Recorded over the course of a hot early summer’s week in Sheffield at Yellow Arch Studios, First Home blends dexterous Latin percussion, Central African psychedelia and UK soundsystem culture across eight exchanges of cross-genre exploration, augmented by Tom Excell’s finessed production and studio engineering. The Arthur Verocai-inspired, Tio opens proceedings, it’s sultry Afrobeat meets Brazilian/MPB fusion, arranged by trombonist Max Purcell-Burrows, is named after Leedsbased promoter, DJ and mentor Lubi ‘Uncle’ Jovanovic and strikes the right balance between Latin, Afro-Cuban street parties and meditative jazz. The set takes a darker turn on Bossfight, the grime-esque opening horn line and Pariss Elektra’s impactful vocals capture a moment of collective anger towards Brexit, systemic racism and the UK government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies