Alan Dearling offers some images and thoughts about the set
Mabgate trio played a lively, even at times, incendiary set at Trades Club in Hebden Bridge for the Sunday Easy afternoon gig. They are from Leeds and specialise in quite aggressive music, experimental, creating a battle-like scenario between bass-lines, ethnic and complex drumming, blended with staccato world rhythms and tinkling keys from dual organ keyboards.
Is it jazz? Certainly it is fusion…cross-over…rock into jazz – a little like the risky and innovative sounds which Miles, Jimi and John McLaughlin might have collectively produced. Genre-bending with plenty of opportunities for experimentation and quirkiness.
It’s really quite hard to describe their range of sonics. It’s certainly quite heavy, sometimes mixing African, Eastern and Spanish/Mexican rhythms, classical influences, maybe a hint of Santana, and, err, the sound of the Wurlitzer! It’s frequently quite a choppy sound, reminiscent of a vessel at sea in a storm, tossing and turning, unsettled amongst the swell of the waves. It’s often edgy, brooding and uneasy. Mabgate have had plenty of plaudits, including critical support from Jamie Cullum, Gilles Peterson and Jazz FM for their debut record ‘From The Mabgate Basement’. Their music is still evolving and transition. They have said that they are, “Honing in on a sound inspired by analogue 70s funk, moody ethio-jazz and worldwide groove music.”
They performed as a trio at Sunday Easy afternoon, but on their latest record they have included Joel Stedman on bass clarinet. The trio line-up was:
Electric Guitar – Ed Allen; Keyboards – Nico Widdowson, and Drums and Percussion – Richard Moulton.
Their set introduced tracks from their recorded output including the 2023 recordings on ‘Mabgate’, such as ‘Club 45’and tunes like ‘KBD’ which featured on the earlier ‘From The Mabgate Basement’ ep, along with new music still in development stages. Drummer, Richard Moulton at one stage introduced a track-in-progress, saying, “Help us out with a title for it…we’re crap at titles…it’s currently called something like, ‘Stingray plus crabs’.”
On-line, Mabgate have given an Interview for Twisted Soul Music online. Here’s an extract:
“The trio started making music together while living in a converted pub that became their creative hub…Formerly known as The Mabgate Organ Trio they return with a new offering, ‘I Asked’. A slightly more imposing and brooding sound with a new sense of freedom in their work. Although it still manages to hold onto the warm sonics we’ve heard from the trio. The track’s theme is inspired by James Blake’s take on love on ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’. Through the tension and euphoric releases of the choruses, we can sense the push and pull of longing for reciprocated effort in friendships.
We chatted with MABGATE about their musical influences, their creative process and more.
If all of you had to choose just one influence on your music, who would it be?
‘El Michels Affair. They’re a New York outfit who make a lot of retro soul, hip hop, instrumental funk. Leon Michels is involved with so many great projects and runs Big Crown Records which put out a lot of music that has influenced this recent project’.”
On Youtube: the single, ‘I Asked’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL7veX24OLs
You can find more of their music on Bandcamp, and from Mabgate at Bandcamp, we learn:
“This track nods to the ethio-jazz of Mulatu Astatke, pitting the verses ominous guitar tones, and driving, looped basslines against the euphoric, melodic pairing of organ and piano in the choruses. Aggressive yet beautiful, the trio set up the appearance of Joel Stedman on bass clarinet, whose dulcet tones develop into fluttering soundscapes that set up the songs’ emotional climax.”
Definitely Mabgate have created a multi-layered, cinematic quality to their music. Challenging at times, and sometimes a musical assault and battery to the senses. ‘Tell It How It Is’ is one of their current audience favourites.