Ash Walker Music

Notting Hill has long been a hub for the multicultural diaspora that has transformed the sound of London. Going right back to the days of Colin MacInnes, documented in City Of Spades, right through to the birth of the Notting Hill Carnival, The Clash and Ladbroke Grove stalwarts like Norman Jay. In recent years, that has been somewhat eroded by the arrival of new upscale residents like Tory MP Michael Gove or actress Keira Knightley. But lately, a chink in the relentless armour of gentrification has appeared in the shape of Ash Walker, producer, DJ, dedicated Afro-futurist and man-about-town.

He is now on his fourth album, Astronaut – the second for Night Time Stories – the accomplished follow-up to Aquamarine. The album is the sum total of his influences – and then some. Travelling from Dilla to D’Angelo, João Gilberto to Johnny Clarke, Inflo to K15, deep house to Soul Vibrations, hyper modern to crackly classics, but all with that unmistakeable swing and groove that is a key component in the Walker yard.

The gestation of Astronaut took somewhat longer than initially planned, no thanks to the looming presence of the pandemic, which banjaxed the entire industry. Walker, however, used that time wisely and the album you have before you, is a product of those elongated times, both in terms of experience but also the finished product.

“This was going to come out in 2020. It’s going to do great things. Then everything happened the way it did, and then I thought, do you know what? I’m not going to complain. I’m not going to kick off about it not coming out sharpish. So that sort of got in the way, but then I took the time to reach out to people. It was the lockdown where everyone just didn’t have much to do. I’m going to take this opportunity to start hollering at some people that are bigger and better and that I look up to.” And holler, he did. 

While his previous album, Aquamarine, where the only collaborators were buddy Laville and trumpeter Yazz Ahmed (both of whom return here too), this time, there are contributions from the London jazz fraternity in Ebi Soda, Oscar Jerome and Joe Armon-Jones, plus vocalists like Londoner Andrew Ashong, former Lamb frontperson Lou Rhodes and Detroit don Amp Fiddler, Tru Thoughts’ duo Denitia and Sly 5th Ave and fellow Night Time Stories’ artist, Kennebec. An album of all the talents. 

“With people like Amp, Sly and Denitia, I feel like because of the pandemic, It made people in the States feel a bit more accessible to me,” Ash avers. “Normally, I would’ve felt like if I’d have sent them a song, they’d be like, ‘Who’s this weird English dude sending us a tune? What’s he done lately?’” He nervously sent out the beats and was thrilled with the response: “I sent Amp the track and he was like, ‘I don’t like the track. I love it.’” Job done. 

Perhaps the most noticeable thing about Astronaut is what a step forward the production is from Aquamarine, the sound of a growing confidence in his ideas, what Ash calls his “musical gumbo”, not just in the quality of the songs, but how the album as a whole sounds. He brought in Grammy-nominee Barry Jamieson to help with the mix (Barry is a long-time collaborator with Sasha and has remixed Madonna and Britney Spears). He really helped focus Ash’s ideas. There’s a pristine feel, a clarity to the slightly dialled-down mix that really helps the songs shine, although Ash laughs, “I cake on reverb and delay because I’m a proper reggae boy!”

On the cryptically-titled ‘Babylonian Triangle Of Captivity’, featuring Ebi Soda, Will Heaton’s pleading trombone drives the track like a dusty old Blue Note release, while Lou Rhodes has never sounded better than on album opener ‘Only Love’. If the last album was (in Ash’s words) underwater jazz, what is Astronaut? Ash chuckles: “I suppose it’s evolved from underwater jazz into deep space soul fusion.” 

“I’m just super happy that I’ve had such experienced help this time,” explains Ash. “Whereas before, I felt like all my albums were just throwing a bunch of my tunes together and rolling the dice and hoping for the best. Sort of message in a bottle out to sea in Brighton, and hoping it landed in Ghana, do you know what I mean? Now it’s a little bit more tactical.”

An album bonus for all synthesthetes, one of Ash’s friends, Ezra, offered to create a scent to accompany the sound of the album. “He concocted this deep space fragrance, which is hard to describe, but we’re going to be doing hand-rolled incense.” Scratch and sniff Astronaut? You betcha.

“I’m endlessly fascinated by trying to do better,” explains Ash. “breaking down those barriers and crossing those genres. Trying to push myself outside of my comfort zone to see if I can do something that might not work. Then seeing how I can make that work. It’s something that I live for, man. So the plan is for people to be able to put their rose-coloured record on the turntable, burn their incense, and soak up the flavour of Astronaut” Ash Walker: ready for lift-off.