Sweetback – S.T.

Sweetback was an English band comprised of members of the band Sade, but not including front woman Sade Adu. The group’s members Stuart Matthewman, Paul Denman and Andrew Hale came together to form the new project after Sade went on hiatus following 1994’s Love Deluxe World Tour. Their sound has been described as “dubwise but not exactly dub, rich in ambience but not exactly ambient music” with influences from a number of popular genres of the time including trip-hop, neo soul, acid jazz, and downtempo. Guest vocalists included Amel Larrieux (Groove Theory), Maxwell, Leroy Osbourne (Sade’s back-up vocalist) and Bahamadia (Philadelphia’s new queen of hip hop). The whole album is solid, but A1 “Gaze,” incredibly takes the Sade sound to a sort of spaced-out psychedelic downtempo territory. B2 “Arabesque” was co-produced by legendary Japanese musician, producer, and graphic designer Toshio Nakanishi of Plastics, Love T.K.O., and Major Force.

Recommended – Full Listen