Today marks the release of Mek Do & Mend, the deeply personal debut album from self-taught producer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and artist Wonky Logic (AKA Dwayne Kilvington).
A defining voice behind the scenes of the UK’s jazz, electronic and contemporary music scenes for over two decades, Kilvington has collaborated with the likes of Nala Sinephro, Yussef Dayes, Nightmares On Wax, Shabaka Hutchings and Emma-Jean Thackray. Now, Mek Do & Mend brings his own story to the forefront.
More than a collection of compositions, the fourteen-track album is a reflection on the people, places and experiences that have shaped him. Rooted in his upbringing on a Leeds council estate, it explores how resourcefulness, community and creativity have informed his life and music. Drawing on material spanning more than fifteen years, the record brings together early compositions and newly written pieces, weaving in voice notes from family, friends, teachers, mentors and collaborators along the way.
As Dwayne puts it, the album exists somewhere between biography and autobiography: the biography found in the voices of those around him, and the autobiography told through the music itself.
Sonically, Mek Do & Mend moves through dynamic jazz arrangements, pulsating broken rhythms, delicate piano passages, interstellar synth textures and elegant brass lines. From the exhilarating momentum of opening track and first single ‘Strange Attractor’, to the shifting grooves and unmistakable vocals of Brother Portrait on ‘A Thousand Hands’, and the emotional resolve of focus track ‘B.A.M.E (Beyond All Marginalised Expectations)’, the album is as expansive as it is intimate.
Featuring contributions from long-time collaborator Luke Wynter, Steam Down drummer Benji Appiah, Vanessa Rani, Jonathan Enser, Joe Bristow, Brother Portrait and Nubiya Imani, the record is a celebration of the creative relationships and shared experiences that make a life in music possible.
Recorded live in a single day at RAK Studios, mixed by Rick David through an analogue Cadac console and mastered by Stuart Hawkes at Metropolis, Mek Do & Mend is a record made to be returned to, with new details and discoveries waiting in every listen.
Reflecting on the project, Dwayne says:
“I don’t want this body of work to be reduced to a jazz record. It’s more like a novel about life told through music.”
Listen to/order Mek Do & Mend here!
A remarkable debut, and a story told through music, memory and the people who make us who we are. Available digitally and on vinyl.
