Out now, “Homecoming” is the debut single from Rooftop Assembly, a grime & folk fusion project from London that formed playing rooftop concerts during lockdown. They have been featured multiple times on BBC RADIO LONDON & BBC Radio 6 and played major festivals, including Glastonbury, and are funded by Help Musicians UK & Arts Council England.
During covid lockdown in 2020, folk musician James Riley & grime MC Kayes Mensah joined forces, playing live-streamed gigs on a north London rooftop to entertain their locked-down neighbours and raise money for food banks. The concerts became a national sensation, attracting coverage from the BBC, and funding from the Arts Council, inspiring a large mural and prompting an outpouring of community support. The project culminated with James & Kayes collaborating with a full-string quartet and a drummer in a live show that went viral on social media. This prompted invitations for the ensemble to perform at Glastonbury, The Great Escape, Wilderness and many other UK festivals.
With their crowdfunded debut EP set for release in November (with support from Help Musicians UK), Rooftop Assembly dropped their first single, “Homecoming”, on Friday, for which we have the pleasure of premiering the accompanying video. The song is a paean to the band’s roots in Tottenham whilst alluding to the shared “home” that the group has found through music: their sound spanning radically different genres and bringing together a plurality of voices and influences in true London style.
When rapper, poet and singer Dizraeli joined forces with English singer songwriter and guitarist Chris Wood in 2012, it wasn’t just the idea of political acoustic rap that excited many – it was also about the inclusive potential of folk music. Since then, other bands like Stick in the Wheel have tapped into a ‘radical inclusivity’, especially with their recent Perspectives on Tradition.
In his review of Perspectives…, Thomas Blake noted, “Gatekeepers are often able to hide in plain sight in folk; Stick In The Wheel make music that very deliberately breaks down those gates.” In the same way, the Rooftop Assembly’s lush, beautifully produced, engaging arrangements and the voice of MC Kayes Mensah are adding weight to this shift in perspectives, and they’re also railing against all that is “stuffy, reductive and undemocratic within the genre.” This is music to be celebrated.
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