The New Mastersounds

The New Mastersounds are a world-class, world renowned, instrumental funk band with 7 years of live performing, 5 full-length album releases and 21 seven-inch single releases under their belt.

NMS are Eddie Roberts (guitar & tambourine), Pete Shand (bass), Simon Allen (drums), and Bob Birch (Hammond). All four of them met in Leeds, UK, and, as a BBC reviewer says, "NMS may produce some confusion: how can a collection of (mostly) pasty-faced Northerners produce with such authority the dusty funk grooves of the early 70s? It doesn't matter - they just do."

In the late 1990's, guitarist and producer Eddie Roberts was running a club night in Leeds called "The Cooker." When The Cooker moved into a new venue with a second floor in 1999, there was space and the opportunity to put a live band together to complement the DJ sets. Roberts and Allen had played together in 1997 as The Mastersounds, though with a different bassist and no organ. Through friends and the intimate nature of the Leeds music scene, Shand and Birch were added on bass and Hammond respectively, and The New Mastersounds were born. Though it was raw and more of a boogaloo sound at first, it was powerful from the start. Their first rehearsal was hot enough for Blow it Hard Records to release it as an EP in 2000.

As a band, and as individuals, they have since clocked up collaborations with an impressive array of musicians DJs and producers, including: Lou Donaldson (Blue Note), Corinne Bailey Rae (EMI), Quantic (Tru Thoughts), Carleen Anderson, Keb Darge & Kenny Dope (Kay Dee Records), John Arnold (Ubiquity), Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune), Snowboy (Ubiquity), Fred Everything (2020vision), Andy Smith (Portishead), Norman Jay MBE, James Taylor (JTQ), Adrian Gibson (Freestyle), LSK (Faithless), The Greyboy Allstars and Karl Denson.

Genres: 
Funk