After years of discussing the concept, Ashley Slater and Czech Hammond organist Jan Korinek have lastly introduced their musical partnership to life with This Is Fucking Good. The debut album from Ashley Slater’s Heptet blends jazz, funk, soul, and groove-driven improvisation via a group of reworked originals, Freak Energy favourites, and impressed covers which have formed Slater’s musical journey.
Launched on Could 29, 2026, the album finds Slater revisiting acquainted materials from a contemporary perspective. Alongside reimagined variations of his personal compositions and Freak Energy tracks, the file additionally contains interpretations of songs by Paul Simon, one of many earliest influences on his musical improvement. Slightly than merely revisiting the previous, the Heptet reshapes these songs via daring preparations, wealthy brass textures, and the unmistakable sound of Hammond organ.
The venture grew out of a friendship that started greater than a decade in the past in Prague. When Slater relocated to Chemnitz, Germany, in 2022, the space between the 2 musicians immediately turned a lot smaller, creating the chance to show years of dialog right into a working band. Collectively, they developed the idea of an expanded organ trio, changing the normal guitar with a four-piece horn part made up of trumpet, trombone, tenor saxophone, and baritone saxophone.
That method provides the album a lot of its id. The brass part usually takes on roles sometimes related to guitar, delivering tightly organized riffs, rhythmic interaction, and layers of concord that drive the music ahead. Mixed with Korinek’s Hammond organ work, the result’s a sound that feels full, energetic, and continually in movement.
Recorded at Golden Hive Studios in Prague, the classes had been deliberately stripped again. Six musicians carried out collectively within the room, recording a number of takes with out click on tracks or heavy reliance on digital enhancing. Vocals had been later added at Slater’s studio in Chemnitz, however the basis of the album comes from the chemistry of musicians responding to at least one one other in actual time. It’s an method Slater describes as “the antidote to AI,” inserting human interplay on the centre of the inventive course of.
Among the many album’s highlights is a reimagined model of Freak Energy’s “Flip On Tune In Cop Out,” which has already drawn reward from radio presenters and DJs who’ve embraced its new route. One other standout arrives with “Nonetheless Loopy After All These Years,” which opens with a vibrant New Orleans-inspired brass association earlier than settling right into a superbly understated efficiency.
The discharge additionally arrives throughout a very vital chapter in Slater’s life. Conscious that he was about to start therapy for a critical sickness, he was decided to finish the file whereas the band was nonetheless collectively and the music remained contemporary. That sense of goal runs all through This Is Fucking Good, an album constructed on long-standing friendships, shared influences, and a dedication to capturing musicians at their most linked.
Hear Right here:bandcamp.com/album/this-is-fucking-nice-2
Observe Ashley Slater: @ashleyslater247/
