add to cart
add to wantlist
email a friend
 
PRICE:
$29.50
PREORDER
Ships When IN STOCK.
01. The Flying Hats - Night Bus
02. The Flying Hats - Grafter
03. The Flying Hats - An Autumn Sun
04. The Flying Hats - Power Cut
05. The Flying Hats - Strong Fish
06. The Flying Hats - Bust Up
07. The Flying Hats - Forward
08. The Flying Hats - Tough Swagger
09. The Flying Hats - Iron Fist
ARTIST
TITLE
The Return Of The Flying Hats
FORMAT
LP

LABEL
CATALOG #
ATA 040LP ATA 040LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
5/16/2025

Every ATA project is marked by collaboration -- some over a few weeks and some over decades. When drummer Sam Hobbs and bassist Neil Innes decided to make The Return Of, by The Flying Hats, they were building on twenty years of playing together; Innes's years of nightclub residencies and love of Afro-American dance music, and Hobbs's intensive exploration of the links between American soul and R&B, Jamaican rocksteady and roots, and the music of the wider Caribbean from Cuba to Trinidad and Brazil. Organist Bob Birch (the original organ player for New Mastersounds) and guitarist Chris Dawkins (Nightmares On Wax, Jimi Tenor, David Holmes, Finlay Quaye) were the other crucial elements -- Birch started out as a jazz Hammond player in the bluesy McGriff/McDuff mould before discovering the more exotic colors of Art Neville and Jackie Mittoo, and Dawkins has been a session guitarist for the cream of British reggae and rock for a generation. The Return of the Flying Hats occupies a space somewhere between The Aggrovators and The Meters, under the influence of Lynn Taitt & the Jets, and Fatman Riddim Section. Tracks like "Grafter" and "Bust Up" conjure up the image of classic New Orleans funk recorded in Kingston, whilst "Tough Swagger" sounds like half of Bunny Lee's Aggrovators have dropped in at "Ultrasonic" to jam with Ziggy Modeliste. In other places the Jamaican sound predominates: "An Autumn Sun" is as sweet a dish of Kingston soul as you could wish for, "Strong Fish" an honest homage to Hot Milk-era Mittoo, whilst the introductory fanfares of opener "Night Bus" and "Power Cut" feel like they should be ushering in hot I Roy cuts. Meanwhile, "Iron Fist" mixes everything up together in a fresh brew of asymmetric drums, talking bass and free-flowing organ melodies: when Innes and Hobbs started jamming together they roughed out melodies to every groove, but Birch came in and ignored virtually every note, preferring instead to simply channel extempo lines that sound both original and traditional at once. It would be a mistake to call this group a new band, with all the communal miles they've travelled together: what this undoubtedly is though, is a fresh take on a couple of cherished genres (New Orleans R&B, Instrumental Rocksteady) that comes up with something more than the sum of its parts.