Listening to a 4Hero track is like stepping into a musical matrix. Dego speaks of the Pied Piper when we meet, whose lively, nomadic spirit is an apt one to personify 4Hero's style of tune. Taking the instruments, exploratory nature and randomness of jazz as a core, introducing strong vocals and rolling with plenty of crisp funky beats, Marc Mac and Dego have always worked their tracks in and out of rich influences.

Like the title of their new LP, these boys like to 'Play With The Changes,' rewriting boundaries and keeping their sound distinct. In Marc's words, 'The best piece of music for us isn't confined to one type of genre or whatever... There's a techno element, jazz, house, everything you know.' 4Hero's ransacking of contrasting techniques and styles is what makes them still sound so fresh and bold after a six year break from the scene. He continues: 'Over the past five or six years, there's been so many things that have changed in our lives that probably would have stopped us from making this album but, you know, rather than see the changes as negative, we've worked with them instead.' The complexity of 'Play With The Changes,' testifies to this fruitful time away as it progresses at its ease. Strings and live drums mutate into synthetic beats, while jerky electronica and queer effects give way to orchestral flourishes. Uniting the whole are the largely female vocal performances, their sensual, individual varieties of jazz and soul lilting over drum n bass arrangements or lazy saxophone and horn. Dego will readily admit that he 'find(s) it easier to work with women!' with the bill of songstresses he and Marc recruit reading like a who’s who of contemporary womanly talent. 'Les Fleur,' starlet Carina Andersson returns to work with the pair, poetess Ursula Rucker is invited to add her verses to the mix, and daughter of Cosmic Jazz Bembe Segue lends her style to 'Something In The Way,' alongside Bugz In The Attic's Kaidi Taitham. Each tune has unique edges, pulsing with the particular elements that seethe within it.

Such rousing creations from the same men whose 'Awakening,' tune bemoans 'The constant downward spiral of music and humanity.' Inspect the lyrics of 'Play With The Changes' and you’ll hear despair as well as hope; while the succession of tracks uplift on a musical level, some lyrics unsettle in their dark vision. Are affairs so bad that there is more negativity in our lives to write songs about than subjects for us to celebrate? Dego answers this one: 'There can be more inspiration there, people just living from hand to mouth and then you know it's way off the scale, but for me personally, nah, there isn't much hope! Things are getting worse and worse...' 'Awakening' sets Ursula Rucker's haunting 'song-speak' against rolling jungle drums, acid flutes and laid back piano sequences, the momentum of her poetry towing the track along. All of this power and beauty from a voice for whom this is 'my soliloquy of missed opportunity,' - 4Hero work well with such paradoxes, pouring disturbing lyrics into major keyed music. Dego laughs when I ask him whether there really isn't any hope – 'Ha! 'What's this about 'what we can do?' I've got to self mission!' - but new Dad Marc is in a different place: 'Having a child has changed everything, I can't afford to think that negatively anymore.' Jokes follow about Marc’s flair for hope leading him to wind up a father; the pair complement each other well and it's their opposite attitudes and energies that must also bring so much dynamic tension to their music.

'Life,' according to this record, 'ain't always a bed of roses,' but the pervading message is to 'Get up, get up, get over it'; a new brand of protest music that introduces us to a politically minded 4Hero. From Dego's words, it seems that the pair of them felt duty bound to break from the surrounding vogue for mindless music; 'I think nowadays a lot of music hasn't really got anything to say. In how many years time we'll still cringe at some of the stuff, hopefully not much, but it's all about that, trying to say something that matters and will last.' He speaks disapprovingly of people who aren't alive to the world's problems in an era of such inequality and upheaval, just 'wanting to party like it’s 1999 or whatever!' Racism, natural disasters, poverty, crime, terrorism, drug abuse, generational struggles, the burden of history...Heavy topics get strapped to music that is by turns delicate and funky; the lyrics might discuss the darker side of life but they are never allowed to weigh down colourful rhythms and uplifting instrumentals. This cushioning effect of the beats and melodies is precisely why the words in 'Awakening' are spoken rather than sung. We discuss the difference it makes to the track. For Dego, 'It's more direct and more immediate, like sometimes you get lost in the music. Then Ursula's voice, the tone of her voice as well, she really cuts through it and it does make you like, 'What’s she saying?' so you listen up.' This central focus upon the voice and its particular colour and mood is classic 4Hero - what makes their work so human and so hard to ignore.

Marc gets to thinking about opening track 'Morning Child,' with its euphoric strings and throwback funkiness. Written just after Marc's son was born, this track is firmly rooted in an actual relationship like so many on the album. 'The mother was involved in the protests of the 60s but in her daughter's generation no one stands up for each other or speaks out.' 'Keep smiling, just like an angel,' urges the older voice; a message to humanity as well as to her baby. 'Play With The Changes,' constantly works like this to weave together the public and the private, as if music is a vehicle for uniting the world and pain and fear dissolve in song. Certain words get isolated and turned into talismans; in 'Stoke Up The Fire,' 'Change' is repeated in a mantra like fashion, impassioned like a prayer. A dry Dego retorts, 'Things aren't going to change for us!' but there’s a cheeky glimmer about his expression that softens the statement. Similarly, 'Look Inside,' has the chord progressions, racing strings and liquid drum n bass quality to intensify lyrics about moving forward after painful experiences. Here’s Marc: 'It is quite a dark lyric but the music is actually positive. Like when someone is hooked on drugs and they've got to find another way.' On the track, FACE's vocals are full of yearning, propelling the music further and enacting its message.

Meanwhile Jack Davey purrs seductively on 'Take My Time,' a sexed-up number that gets us talking about the symmetry between music and making love. 'Have you seen the video for that tune as well?' laughs Dego, 'That was our project, baby! I know that B flat is the love note and it ain't no joke! Like the Pied Piper yeah? What was that, a flute?' Marc now takes the helm: 'I guess the cheesy sex angle is the saxophone, but yeah, isn't the flute the sign of the God of Love?' Erotic or not, 'Play With The Changes' is certainly made with a whole load of love. A love for life in wanting to make it better, a love for language in its lyrical play, and above all a love of music - 'When we're searching for break beats there's all kinds of things around them...That little bit of the drum solo or bits of brass, there's some mad rock records, so you start to listen to loads, it gets really eclectic.' From junglist jazz to the mellow Stevie Wonder cover, to 'Sophia,' an ambient track that wouldn't sound out of place on a Zero 7 album or 'Dedication To The Horse,' a punky ode to their mate's band, 4Hero have built an album designed to surprise. According to Dego, 'It's good to have the type of music you drink yourself silly and dance all night too, but people have been eating too much of it! And getting fat!'

For all of its lyrical awareness of our time, on a musical level the record has a retrospective feel, which Marc believes is 'Psychedelic! Yeah, from 'Morning Child' to the guitars at the end...' Dego shakes his head wildly, but then this is an impossibly rich album - descriptives arrive thick and fast. Dego himself struggles to express it: 'No doubt it's eclectic, nothing too heavy but at the same time...' The full-stop to his sentence is a smile - it's all too technical! You should buy 'Play With The Changes' because as Marc says, 'We need the money,' and like Dego teases, 'Some of us need to get away!' Somewhere the duo certainly aren’t tied to anymore is the UK drum n bass world: 'We're not tied down, we’re simply trying to find good music across the board, whatever it is.' Amen to that! With this expertly crafted record and the warm, wild way it salutes a whole history of black music, Marc and Dego have returned to raise the bar again.

4HERO'S 'PLAY WITH THE CHANGES' IS OUT NOW (RAW CANVAS)



WORDS: LUCY WILSON