Under his ‘Mr Fingers’ moniker, Larry Heard released some of the most jacking, acid-infused tracks of the early Chicago House movement. such as Bring Down The Walls and Washing Machine, not to mention the epic Can You Feel It.
While Heard has continued to release music under his own name for many years since – 2011’s Winterflower is a recent highlight – this Friday, the Chicago native releases his first album as ‘Mr Fingers’ for 24 years, since 1994’s Back To Love.
Called Cerebral Hemispheres, the new album seamlessly blends house music with R&B, soul, jazz and countless other genres, as you might expect from a legend of his craft. It will be released on Heard’s own label, Alleviated Records.
Commenting on the album, NPR.org, which offers users the ability to stream the new album on its website (USA only, unfortunately), described it thus: “The house music sound that Heard helped bring to life in Chicago in the mid-1980s is everywhere, of course — sometimes foregrounded, minimalist and jacking, at other times buried in the songs’ DNA.
“But Hemispheres also features generous helpings of soulful R&B, of rock guitar and jazz strains (smooth here, acidic and downtempo there), of South American and Antillean rhythms. Elsewhere, it eschews overt rhythm for melody and ambiance, making clear that the anthemic Fingers/Heard legacy now celebrated across the world’s dance-floors is only part of the story.”
Welcome back Larry.. I mean, Mr Fingers!
[Kudos to Chris Tee for the YouTube upload. Image sourced from NPR.org]
