The Situation collective is headed up by Mr Mulatto and Frank Situation and they return this month with their much-anticipated new album, ‘Audio Proxemics.’ Across nine sumptuous tracks, it explores a warm array of sounds from jazz-flecked deep house to soulful nu-disco with guests like Javonntte, Faze Action’s Robin Lee, and more. On the week of the release, we got the chance to sit down with the guys…
WWD: Thanks for talking to us today. Where are you at this moment and how are you spending the day?
In the studio doing a promo mix for the album promotion and answering these questions..
WWD: Where are you from and where are you based now?
Bath but now I live in Stroud & Stroud.
WWD: What do you love about the city you live in?
Very creative for a small town. It’s very well located. Great sense of community. Beautiful countryside like Stroud is at the heart of where five valleys meet so you have lots of amazing views.
WWD: How long have you been making music together?
We’ve been making music together for 25+ years
WWD: What came first for you – DJing or production?
We both came to production as a natural progression from DJing.
WWD:Where were some of the first gigs that you played?
For Mr Mulatto it was a mix of different clubs and parties in and around Bristol & Bath. Frank Situation – we used to put on a night called Phat Nutz and played Gloucester, Cheltenham & Stroud…and lots of free parties.
WWD: How did you first meet? What led up to you working together?
We met around the mid 90’s at local parties and clubs as we shared a passion for the same style of US deep house at the time. Then hooked up with Rob Evans who had a studio in Stroud and started making house music together.
WWD: When was the label first born? What was your vision for the label?
The label was born in 2014 as a vehicle for us to release our own original material from the Situation collective of musicians & vocalists.
WWD: What was your first release together?
As BRS – releasing our first EP in 2000, called ’Time To Shuff’ on the Parisian label Cyclo Records. Closely followed by ‘Lovin Me’ on San Francisco label Imperial Dub.
WWD: What do you feel has been your most notable release, which one made the biggest impact?
It was probably the Tom Laroye & Andre Espeut remix of Situation’s ‘Beyond Compare’ back in 2021 that got played on BBC Radio 6Music by Craig Charles 3 times, 3 weeks in a row and then again at the end of the year as one of his tracks of the year.
WWD: Who are the artists that inspire the music that you like to make?
Wow that’s a difficult question to answer because there is so much music that inspires and influences it would be hard to pinpoint. It’s just a big melting pot of artistry that is just there!
WWD: Tell us a little about the initial idea for the album, ‘Audio Proxemics.’ When did you first approach the idea and what was your intention with the release?
Our intention was to have a collection of tracks that resonated and worked for us and the collaborations that we made towards it. We approached the idea of the album just over 2 years ago and just started compiling the tracks with everybody that we thought would work on the album. Venessa Jackson who is a singer/songwriter from Durban SA. turbo charged the process when she spent a couple of days in the studio when she visited us, where we recorded a whole bunch of tracks – 3 of which were heading straight for the album!
WWD: What are you most proud of with ‘Audio Proxemics?’
That there is a good mix of vocal and instrumental tracks, and each track holds its own and has qualities that we love. Also being able to work globally with different artists.
WWD: What was the most challenging part of bringing this release together?
Probably the last stage of mixing it up with our good friend John Gray, where there was a lot of back and forth and changes to sound, production and also arrangements. The whole process probably took about a year but was worth it!
WWD: The nine tracks of the album cover a wide array of sounds. Was the idea of varied sounds central to your vision?
Varied styles and sounds were important and always in relation to the creation and input of the musicians and artists involved as we like to work in that organic collective way.
WWD: Tell us about some of the featured artist highlights on the album?
Sorry I couldn’t leave anyone out as they are all so special…
Vennessa Jackson – vocals (South Africa), Andre Espeut – vocals (London, UK), Maurice Smith – vocals (California, USA), Clifton King – vocals (Brooklyn, USA), Javonntte – vocals (Detroit, USA), Phil ‘Dr Keys’ Campbell – Keys(Stroud, UK), James Payne – Guitar(Stroud, UK), Dom Thompson – keys(Stroud, UK), Patsy Gamble(Stroud, UK), Robin Lee – strings(Faze Action, UK), Andy Gillespie – Flute(UK), Drew Manley – percussion(UK).
WWD: What drives you both to create music?
The idea of creating something that will give someone joy, memories, to feel love, passion, spirituality…music has always been there and is like a life force. We would find life a lot harder without music…
WWD: Where do you find the most inspiration when it comes to discovering new music?
Usually radio and online mixes, shops, Bandcamp, friends & musical peers.
WWD: Who are the artists that you follow right now?
I think for us it’s more about tracks rather than artists. We do love loads of the Detroit producers & musicians like Los Hermanos, Javonntte,
UK artists Crazy P, Roisin Murphy, Greg Wilson, Sean McCabe and Peven Everett is dope. Maters at Work, Chez & Trent, Dego, and Jimpster as well.
WWD: What are you working on next that you can share?
We are looking at getting a remix 12” of some album tracks out this year alongside other releases and of course cooking up something special for our 100th release.
Got some remixes lined up for Soulfuledge which is gonna be pretty sweet! We also want to write some new material including a more soulful house track. Frank is also dabbling in some liquid drum and bass!
WWD: Amazing! Congrats on the album and thanks for the chat 😉
‘Audio Proxemics’ is available here