Vertaal Paradigm Shifting

Ajit Gill & Theo Howarth sharing a love of groove & improvisation, forming musical ideas traversing spiritual nu-jazz, Dilla-esque hip-hop, broken beat & neo-soul. Vertaal first mixtape, Paradigm Shifting had a soft digital released on the 23rd April 2020, on Vertaal’s Empty Quarter Tribe imprint. Self-produced, recorded and mixed in their own studio, the EP was nominated by Jazz Revelations for EP of 2020 and produced four singles, ‘Polar’, ‘Duels, ‘Drop Off’ and ‘Dilla5’. 2020’s lock down led to a completely remixed and partial re-recording of the mixtape into a full, seamlessly mixed double LP with 6 additional tracks and a further 6 musical ‘skits’ recorded separately by all the contributor musicians on the album during lock-down. The limited edition vinyl 2LP will be released on June 25th 2021

Vertaal have been an increasingly notable presence in the nu-jazz scene over the past 3 years. Tipped as “ones to watch for 2019” by Jazz Re:freshed, Vertaal played an exclusive pick of sold out shows at prestigious venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Soho and the Jazz Café.

They have also supported the likes of Mark Guiliana (David Bowie), & Pete Ray Biggin (Level 42) and finished off 2019 guesting for Richard Spaven at The Cambridge Jazz Festival. Of the six tracks on the current mixtape, first single ‘Polar’ was played on the uber-cool Deeper Cuts show by DJ Karl Bos who described the track as an “incredibly produced record.”

Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM) urged his listeners to “…hunt this down. They’re making incredible music!” after playing two tracks from Paradigm Shifting on his show, and the mixtape has garnered similar excited responses from many DJs and reviewers (press list below).

The shrink-wrap will be stickered with full information and press quotes.