Serial label head Seb Wildblood highlights five of his standout releases from 2018…

A beloved south London maverick with his fingers in many pies, Seb Wildblood had a busy 2018. With a booking schedule that took him as far as Czech Republic, Colombia and Thailand, Seb stayed busy at home too with London shows, working on his own material and managing the release and event schedule for not one, not two, but three record labels.

The tail end of 2018 welcomed the release of Grab the Wheel, a four track EP released via all my thoughts on November 9th. Known for warm house with jazzy inflections, Grab the Wheel sees Seb exploring a wider palette, with the EP dubbed by Resident Advisor as his most dynamic record to date. Warmth remains a staple, with bright and hazy landscapes apparent across the four tracks, but there’s a fresh toughness to the rhythms and percussion. ‘Bad Space Habits’ leans towards garage, lead track ‘Grab the Wheel’ has a 90s Chicago feel, and closing cut ‘Landing’ hints at what we can expect from Wildblood in the near future with its tight polyrhythms and blissed out instrumentation.

Celebrating the release of Grab the Wheel as well as a glittering year with a myriad of label offerings, Seb Wildblood’s In Five is a special one. Below he selects five standout releases from 2018 – two on Church, two on Coastal Haze, and one on all my thoughts.

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BUDDY LOVE – SORRY THAT I’M DRIFTING

Buddy Love is a core member of Coastal Haze, we’ve now released two EP’s of his and also a mixtape cassette full of unreleased material. One of the best things about doing the labels is when you really connect with an artist and build a friendship off the back of working together, Adam (Buddy) is the perfect example of this. We’ve all become best mates and we’re super grateful to have him involved. He layers his own vocals over lush synth patterns and loose drums, culminating in a unique and slick sound. I hear there are more live elements involved in the next record so I’m excited to hear where it takes him. 

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RAI SCOTT – PARADISE OF CRANE

Rai is someone I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. She’s been making music since the late 90s and releasing via her own imprint Inner Shift Music as well as a host of others. There’s a raw deepness to her production that feels as fresh as it does timeless. We were lucky enough to have her supply the final Church release of the year Detached Observation. If you’re feeling this one, it’s definitely worth checking out her Clarinet Moods EP on No More To Roam, TIP! 

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TOM VR – GOLDEN MEMORY 

Tom is one of the most slept on artists I work with. We released his Films LP back in February which contains both a mix of club-ready fire and ambient cuts. He manages to seamlessly blend emotive pads and top lines with the most intricate, high-end drum programming and production, culminating in an extremely evocative sound that’s equally suited to headphone listening or club excursion. He also co-runs Valby Rotary, who have an incredibly cohesive back catalogue, not too dissimilar to Tom’s sound. I can see him making some serious waves…

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D.TIFFANY – V2M

We were all super excited for the release of Sophie’s EP. I remember first hearing her music whilst driving through some mountains in Norway back in 2014, safe to say I was blown away. She’s released some killer records this year (see Feel U for more details), I’ve been playing ‘V2M’ out relentlessly. We also have a D. Tiffany remix of Pacific Coliseum’s future classic ‘Ocean City’ on the way very shortly so watch this space! 

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YADAVA – SAUDADE

I’ve known Yad for years now via one of my oldest school friends. We’d originally planned to release an EP of his, however as time went by he continued to send new music that seemed to be getting better and better. We decided to delay the release and build a full length. Finding the right balance of tracks for an album can be pretty difficult but I think we’re both really proud of how this one came out. 

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Seb Wildblood’s ‘Grab the Wheel’ EP is out now on all my thoughts. 

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