Founded in 1990 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Cold Front were what you’d call early adaptors, their music at the time of its inception an oddity. This fourpiece, consisting of spouses Ayanna and Cam Muata, Jon Jon Scott and Ron Clark, were far ahead of their time and faded just as rapidly as they entered the stage, only playing a handful of local shows in support of Nine Inch Nails, Meat Beat Manifesto and such, alongside several cameos during early house nights and techno events.
Though short lived, their music nevertheless speaks volumes. It’s intriguing stuff, a magical association of sound reminiscent of Ron Hardy and Klein MBO. New Beat-like drum parts, overdubbed by politically engaged raps, basslines that would make The Cure proud, held together by freakout speaking in tongues vocal experiments while also showing an obvious parallel to the rise of triphop at the other side of the ocean.
Beyond the Beat will burst dancefloors soon. In collaboration with Paris’ recordshop Dizonord, Knekelhuis will close the summer of 2019 with this amazing gem.
Written-by Ron Clark, Cam Middleton, Jon Jon Scott, Ayanna Muata
Photography by Deborah Meyer
Listen / Purchase
Review
Knekelhuis excavate a cornerstone of ‘90s Minneapolis dance music with reissue of Cold Front’s sole EP
‘Beyond The Beat’ is the work of 4-piece Cold Front, comprising spouses Ayanna and Cam Muata, plus Jon Jon Scott and Ron Clark, who released the original on his Audiocon label in 1990. The A-side tends to a sort of deep house that could arguably have come from anywhere between Minneapolis and Antwerp in 1990, rolling out in a hip-house style radio edit, a stripped and grooving ‘Infinite Mix’, and the concentrated ’Subterranean Bass Mix’.
However it gets better on the B-side with ‘Stars and Stripes’, lodged somewhere between MBM, NIN, and Jeff Mills’ bits with Final Cut, alongside ‘Minus 22 Degrees Fahrenheit (Ambient East)’, which sounds like Peter Hook’s imaginary proto-Goa trance side project, and the Prince-meets-White House White alike banger ‘Side By Side (Rough Mix)’.
Boomkat