Fresh from his tours of duty with the likes of NSM, TY and Gum Drop, Randolph Matthews wraps his butter smooth tonsils around the sample led beats and breaks of trip-hoppy soul numbers like ‘Foolin’, ‘Mystery Rose’ and ‘Waves’. Very downtempo, gentle and as laid-back as palm trees in the breeze, ‘Strangers To The Ordinary’ isn’t a must-have record by any stretch of imagination, but it does have a sound that washes over you in the same silky way a sheet of fresh bed-linen might in the wee small hours of the morning. The album is offered additional lubrication from the jazzy, dreamy vocals of Marcia Escoffrey, who lends her own distinctive froth to stand-out track, ‘You Are The One’.
Co-Produced by Break Reform, the Matthews’ new project, ‘Low Budget Soul’ has garnered worldwide support from Giles Peterson, Patrick Forge, Mad Mats, Giant Step and Kev Beadle.