Slow To Speak

Cutting their teeth on early ‘golden-era’ hip-hop classics by the likes of Public Enemy, Gangstarr and X-Clan, Slow To Speak learned the importance of a quick-witted and aggressive approach to programming and DJ'ing. Their transition to house music was natural and seamless, surrounded by the sounds of early 1990’s hip-house and the work of local crossover legends like Armand Van Helden.

Taking inspiration from their sporadic and surreptitious visits to local clubs and practicing tirelessly at home, Slow to Speak began to break into the closely-knit underground club scene, eventually culminating in their long-running residency, 'LIFE'---joined by house legends such as Theo Parrish, Joe Claussell, Kerri Chandler, King Britt, Louie Vega and countless others. All along the way, they reached back to their original wellspring of youthful exuberance to produce countless mixtapes and embark on a remixing tour-de-forced that has included Bjork, Thom Yorke, Inner City, David Byrne and Current 93.

Inspired to contribute more, Slow to Speak moved on to established the peerless New York City record shop Dope Jams, a means to bring to light beautiful and under-appreciated new and classic music for the world's expanding music subculture. The store has gained momentum for its flawless selection and thunderous analogue sound-system. Pushing deeper, they established a family of interrelated record labels to disseminate their exhaustively-accumulated knowledge to their customers and friends. Available once more was unearthed jazz, rock and soul masterpieces by the likes of Don Cherry, Pink Floyd, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Neil Young, The Mars Volta, and many more. On the other end of the spectrum, seminal house classics were revisited under their ‘CORE’ reissue label by the likes of Bobby Konders, DJ Duke, Mood II Swing, Blaze, Chez Damier & Ron Trent. These labels laid the groundwork for their future intentions while firmly stating their countless influences. Superseding the world of reissues, the ‘Chasing Voices’ label pushes past the frontier of new electronic music, consciously avoiding the superficiality of name recognition with a roster of entirely anonymous production from NYC's most underground visionaries, while Dope Jams' own self-titled staple continues to release modern and challenging soulful club music for the present age and beyond by the likes of Hieroglyphic Being, Neotnas & Thomas Bullock.

Francis Englehardt, Paul Nickerson

Slow. To Speak