The third Bluestronica playlist is now live on Spotify, and this one is all about groove. Bluestronica Grooves brings together gritty blues riffs and modern electronic rhythms into a smooth, mid-tempo journey that works just as well in the daytime as it does late in the evening.
This playlist is built around rhythm, feel, and hooks. Expect tracks that move forward with confidence: groove-based, danceable in a subtle way, and driven by strong, memorable motifs. It’s not about rushing — it’s about locking into a pocket and letting the music breathe. Think warm blues tones, deep beats, and a modern production edge that keeps everything fresh and contemporary.
We’re especially proud that Bluestronica Grooves features a strong selection of tracks from the Black & Tan Records catalogue. This playlist shows exactly how blues can evolve without losing its soul. From hypnotic riffs to electronic textures that add depth and motion, these tracks highlight the adventurous side of the label’s sound.
Bluestronica Grooves is designed for a broad audience that loves groove, atmosphere, and strong songwriting. Press play, turn it up, and let the blues move you—this time with an electronic heartbeat.
In order to make music usage and catalog info easier to browse and understand for music supervisors we’ve updated the SyncBlu page.
Two small but useful things we’re highlighting: – Placements – showing where music has been used so far – A direct link to our complete catalog at DISCO – since most music supervisors already work with it anyway
With Midnight Sessions, Black & Tan Records presents the first release from its new Bluestronica platform — a project dedicated to exploring the evolving edges of blues-influenced electronic music.
Bluestronica: Midnight Sessions focuses on the darker, after-hours side of the blues spectrum. Across the compilation, raw vocals and expressive guitars blend with downtempo beats, lo-fi textures and subtle hip-hop rhythms. The result is not a dancefloor-oriented release, but an intimate listening experience shaped by mood, space and atmosphere.
The artists featured on Midnight Sessions operate in the space between tradition and experimentation. While the emotional core of the blues remains clearly present, it is reimagined through modern production techniques and electronic arrangements. Each track contributes to a cohesive late-night flow, moving between electronic blues, alternative blues and downtempo soundscapes.
Bluestronica was created as a platform within the Black & Tan ecosystem to highlight contemporary blues hybrids and future-facing interpretations of the genre. Midnight Sessions marks the first chapter of this new series, setting the tone for releases that aim to stretch the boundaries of blues while staying true to its expressive depth.
For listeners who prefer high-quality audio and album-focused platforms, this release is also available on Qobuz.
Blues has always been in motion. Not only as a tradition, but as a feeling — raw, personal and constantly in dialogue with its time.
With Bluestronica, we explore a part of our catalog where blues intersects with electronic production, downtempo beats and hip-hop-influenced grooves. Not as a new genre, but as a contemporary context for existing music.
At the core of Bluestronica is US and UK repertoire in which blues vocals, guitar and songwriting are combined with modern production techniques. Sometimes subtle and atmospheric, sometimes darker and more rhythmic — but always rooted in blues feeling.
Rather than starting with individual releases, we chose to develop this project through curation. The Bluestronica playlists function as an open framework: updated regularly, tested in real-world listening contexts and gradually refined. From this foundation, selected compilation releases will follow.
Bluestronica is not a short-term campaign, but a way of presenting catalog in a sustainable, contemporary manner — for listeners and for the industry alike.
Having celebrated its 30th anniversary of its foundation in 2024; now this time MOE JOE, saluted and praised as “the ever first traditional electric blues band founded in Turkey” brings a raunchy approach to its interpretation to urban blues.
Recorded live in 2008; this unreleased original composition of the band stands out as a concrete example of its quest to urbanize their sound, though this recording also stands as a sample of their keen precision on conserving their trad essentials.
Released digital only and available on all download and streaming platforms.
Smyrnian duo made of Kemal Begtaş and Sarp Keskiner present a fierce breakbeat boogie this time where they bring an “inter-desert” approach to their sonic alliance by presenting a spiraling theme featuring razor sharp riffs spiced with a vibrant Levantine touch.
Expected as usual, cowbells are rattling and bones are shaking on Leo Malandro’s rework of the track; where he takes a sample from an obscure composition of Sarp Keskiner, which he composed for a radio drama piece in 2000 that presents vicious cries of Korhan Futaci (Istanbul) on sax.
The music is released digital and available on all the download and streaming platforms
Jeff Shucard: “In the year 2000, I arrived in Istanbul with the intention of teaching English at a language school in the Kadıköy district. I was recovering from a life threatening illness that prevented me from touring with British band leader – legendary trombonist Chris Barber. Though I had a guitar with me, I knew absolutely nothing about the Istanbul music scene and due to my health issues, I was not interested in performing at all.
Then, one day in a local music store I met a university student who played electric guitar named Berk Sirman; who befriended me and took it upon himself to book me into a few clubs. One of those clubs was called Shaft and it was there that I met Sarp Keskiner, who enthusiastically welcomed me into the vibrant blues scene in which his band Moe Joe performed.
Sarp, as I discovered, was an avid student of blues history as well as a fine musician and producer. His ideas were far reaching and yet always in the pocket of the various genres of music he performed. Perhaps he alone in Turkey knew the music of Charley Patton, John Hurt and my favorite, Blind Blake. And so it happened that due to Sarp’s generosity of spirit and interest in acoustic country blues that we began working together.
Listening now to these tracks recorded 15 years ago, I’m taken by the raw energy we collectively produced. Back then, many clubs that we performed at with a busy schedule had little in the way of sound equipment. As I clearly remember, around the mid-2000’s there were even some nights where we spent more time doing the sound check than playing. Although draining, some of the accumulated energy of the band; the primitive but vital energy of the venues suited us fine as somehow we ended up sounding like early Chess recordings at the end of the day! Thus, I often felt as though we were musical astronauts playing a style of music no one Turkey had ever heard before.
Here, Sarp continues the narrative: “Once the Turkish core of SPL line-up was set; with the support of my never ending energy on finding a new venue to play our music and following an eclectic approach to build up circular line-ups as booking who is available to gig with the band from the local scene; Sweet Papa Lowdown succeeded
to tour in Turkey not for once but for three times as in 2000, 2004, 2006 while regularly holding gigs in the most respected clubs in Istanbul. Eylul (September) Music Club was one of the hot spots of the then lively blues scene, as all along the decade of 2000; each club in Istanbul had their own audience with specific musical tastes.”
“Going back to the subject of circular but irregular touring schedule of SPL, the band found many chances to visit cities namely as Izmir, Izmit, Adana, Mersin, Antakya, Ankara, Mugla and Antalya while the line-ups that are mostly comprised of multi-instrumentalist national blues celebrities were also and intentionally enhanced by addition of well-respected names from Canada / USA such as Doug Rhodes, Rick Van Krugel, Blaine Dunaway, Dan Smith, Dan Marcus and Kris Bowerman. Regarding a vast audio archive that feature those aforementioned names that brought their own stance of blues to the band, SPL found a chance to create a unique mélange of blues, ragtime and gospel music in a swinging period of six years while establishing a common ground that gave the opportunity of a mutual exchange between local and international blues experts.”
Thus, this audio-doc is launched as just starting point and I hope other live albums of SPL shall create a series. Looking back on it; those were good days… My respect for the music that is produced by various line-ups of the band in Istanbul continued to grow in the next decades and now, I feel grateful to have been a part of that scene. (Jeff Shucard, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, 2024)
French singer/ guitarist Renaud Villet last worked on his Rivherside Project in 2016, eventually blending blues with electronics and whatever took his fancy. He hadn’t intended to return to it, but never say never… Not long ago, he came up with a riff on acoustic guitar which he wanted to record – he added various other instruments and a drum sample and put a huge fuzz tone on the guitar, eventually giving it a dirty roots feel akin to his former work with Rivherside. Dutch label Black & Tan resurrected the name, and here we are – instrumental cheap fuzz blues is both the title and the description.
There are four tracks: ‘Toad’s Fuzz’ is a riff that starts off big and builds from there, whilst ‘Fuzz Blowin’’ is Bo Diddley flavoured with a pronounced slide guitar lead, and ‘The Jab’ has a sixties feel with a touch of Essex Delta R’n’B roughness and a punky attitude, before the 70s take over with a fine guitar break. The EP finishes with a slower, cleaner-sounding ‘Last Thrill’ with echoes of BB King in the guitar work (though a little rawer than BB himself would have played it) The whole thing runs to around eleven minutes in total, and that’s just how it should be – really rather fine all round, this one.
