Claude Cooper Tangerine Dreams / Two Mile Hill

It must be said that Claude Cooper's first and perhaps only single is a fitting debut release for Friendly Records’ emergence as a label. 'Tangerine Dreams' is the sort of music one would expect to unearth in the hallowed backroom murk of a record shop where layer upon layer of wax plates periodically shift and reveal lost and long overlooked dusty relics just waiting to be freed into the slipstream of the shop floor. So it goes with the wild, wailing 'Tangerine Dreams'; beginning with the descending ticking countdown of the double bass into the drum break, we are thrown into the saxophone whirlpool of cymbal crashes and snaking bass. It's an edgy, fast ride through the city at night with that faint threatening undercurrent as piano trills grace the fade out.

On the flip, Two Mile Hill continues the theme and is darkly cinematic with echoed footsteps & bass introduction to the drawn out lament of the trumpet. A mid-section breakdown teeters on the edge before the trumpet glides and weaves through and across the strutting bass line and percussive backdrop. This is another musical addition to the canon that celebrates and mythologises Bristol; this time it’s Two Mile Hill, a small district on the eastern outskirts of Bristol and an evocative title for music that is in constant whirring motion in summoning the urban nighttime.

That this Claude Cooper release arrives in the midst of lockdown with the live scene on hold and club doors shut, seems fitting for an artist and a record shrouded in the unknown. Who knows whether we'll ever get the chance to hear this single live? Indebted to or perhaps even from the 90s jazz breaks scene, it would be a welcome addition to any basement stage or backroom happening of the current Bristol Jazz scene that until recently pulsed through the city’s venues on any given night.

We love how the first special tangerine run of 300 sold out in barely a week so don't delay getting yourself a classic black record edition. The musical wealth of Bristol continues apace and we’re helping it along.