Music often has the freedom to poke its nose into what other styles are doing. Robert Glasper maintains that "jazz is the mother and father of hip-hop music". By really grasping this message, it becomes clear that distinguishing between genre is at times, completely unnecessary.
This is particularly true with the music of Horatio Luna. Serving as the founding member of the 30/70 collective as well as a number of other musical projects including the recent downundaground compilation, Henry Hicks’s music is a kaleidoscopic fusion of groove based sounds rooted in the rhythms of the city. While his music refuses to be reduced to a specific genre, Luna’s sound is undoubtedly characterised by an improvisational quality and calculated groove reminiscent of Moodymann’s soul-indebted club music. It's both incredibly innovative and impossible not to dance to.
Ahead of Horatio Luna's forthcoming debut solo LP Yes Doctor, out 14th February, Luna answered a few questions on what inspired the album and provided Low End Theorists with a mix of the record’s key sonic and aesthetic influences.
Can you name some of the albums and songs that influenced the new record, and tell us a little bit about why they were important to you?
Scientist - Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires (1981)
Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires is one of my favourite records - I discovered reggae and dub living in Vanuatu. Scientist’s groove and production is my joint.
Pyramid - Pyramid (1980)
Pyramid - Pyramid (1980), original oz jazz fusion band, beautiful record often overlooked locally but world class.
WU15 - WU15 (2015)
WU15, funky live house with Henry Wu and K15 - the dream team from London. Big inspiration.
Kenny Dixon Jr. - Soul Sounds (1996)
Love Moodymann, the facilitator, his record under Kenny Dixon Jr, Soul Sounds, is funky af.
You’re at the heart of a thriving music scene in Melbourne. Who are your favourite Australian artists and albums, and why?
I’m really inspired by beat tapes like Clever Austin’s Hide-Away Headshell and Silent Jay’s ‘Wrap Tapes’. I’m really inspired by all the musicians I get the pleasure of working with [and] the younger crew coming up. Love the Raw Humps release, Sugar Slave! Love Sleep D’s music.
There's obviously a huge jazz and house influence in your music -- Is there a special link between jazz music and the dance floor for you?
The connection is the dance floor. Jazz is dance music. It’s club music, it’s underground. Coming from a jazz background, myself and a lot of my friends were interested in improvising with more modern aesthetics like hip-hop and house using electronic sounds and sample based ideas to create one on spot composition.
Horatio Luna’s debut LP is out 14th Feb - buy from Bandcamp.