Fila Brazillia | Black Market Gardening

Fila Brazillia is the name of the very special collaboration between Steve Cobby and David McSherry, which arose in the English coastal town of Hull. The duo has bent – and often completely broken – virtually all rules and effortlessly blended deep house, downtempo, breaks, ambient, and understated humor, while sampling almost everything they could get their hands on.

Their first release was the one-sided white label-12" Mermaids from 1990, an airy deep house track with a cheeky sample from the theme to Robinson Crusoe. Since then, they have released a plethora of singles, seven acclaimed studio albums, and more than 60 remixes for artists such as Radiohead, Busta Rhymes, and Lamb.

Black Market Gardening is the duo's third album and a creative highlight of their career. Across nine tracks, they move through hazy, bass-heavy trip-hop, cosmic synthscapes, energetic breakbeats, funky guitar riffs, and even a touch of drum'n'bass – it was, after all, the mid-1990s. There are so many details to discover that it can be difficult to hear where samples stop and live instruments begin.

Fila Brazillia's music certainly fits into the British chillout tradition that flourished at this time, but the duo's unique creativity and boundless approach to studio work have given the music a timeless quality.

To mark the album's 30th anniversary, Black Market Gardening is now becoming available on vinyl for the first time since 2001.